United States’ (U.S.) President
Donald Trump’s policy speech about South Asia has been the most discussed topic
everywhere this week. While addressing on Monday from Fort Myer military base in
Arlington, he turned aside all his previous policies. He said a lot and went on
saying without any limitation. In his entire speech he adopted the most hostile
attitude towards Pakistan. Though he condemned the previous policies of Obama
administration also but his lashing out at Pakistan was matchless.
Trump acknowledged Pakistan’s sacrifices very briefly “The Pakistani people have
suffered greatly from terrorism and extremism. We recognize those contributions
and those sacrifices.”
Beside this small statement, Pakistan remained in the crosshairs of Trump’s
Afghan Strategy. In that televised ultimatum, Trump rebuked Pakistan in the most
stinging terms, saying “the U.S. would no longer allow it to provide safe havens
for terrorists. We can no longer be silent about Pakistan's safe havens for
terrorist organizations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the
region and beyond," Trump said. "Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with
our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals
and terrorists."He also announced a surprising call for India to do more in
Afghanistan. On this he said, “We want (India) to help us more with
Afghanistan.”
In his long narrative, U.S. President Donald Trump did not bothered to give some
space to the Pakistani claim of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) safe havens at
Afghan soil, responsible for thousands of casualties within Pakistan. Neither he
mentioned any future plan to tackle those TTP sanctuaries at Afghan soil.
Instead of pulling the wanes of India regarding terrorism in Pakistan, he
encouraged India to do more in same style. It looked as Trump administration is
totally disinterested in peace in Pakistan; they want peace only in Afghanistan.
If Pakistan is burning in terrorism, they have no issue even Afghan land becomes
launching pad for terrorism in Pakistan. Rather U.S. is happy in encouraging and
supporting Pakistan’s archrival India to continue its current role. Trump, even,
didn’t show any concern about U.S. drone attacks on Pakistani soil.
Now the question arises why Pakistan has gradually slipped to bad books of U.S.
and India has achieved an honorable status in U.S. foreign policies.
Most important, it’s a total failure of Pakistan’s Foreign Office that could not
establish meaningful ties with Trump Administration. From 2013-17, Pakistan’s
Foreign Office, under the direct supervision of ex- Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
with Adviser Sartaj Aziz, remained dormant for most of the time, while its
Indian adversary under the patronage of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj
remained extremely active on all forums in world. Pakistani ex- premier Nawaz
Sharif was lambasted many times by Pakistan Peoples Party and many others for
not having any Foreign Minister but Nawaz Sharif never paid heed to all this. He
always turned a deaf year to such critics. It seems that an intentional induced
weakness in Foreign Ministry has put Pakistan into such complex and tough
scenario.
Furthermore, it’s a history that Americans never proved to be all-weather
friends of Pakistan. They always left Pakistan in difficult situations. Pakistan
just remained a ‘Disliked Ally’ for U.S., while India, besides being an ally to
Russia remained close to U.S. as well.
China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is also the cause of U.S., India’s and
Afghanistan’s fury as it may balance little bit American hegemony in region.
CPEC will also deeply involve China regarding security issues of Pakistan,
especially of Indian sponsored terrorism using Afghan soil, as claimed by
Pakistani officials repeatedly.
Pakistan’s growing nuclear arsenals and missile capabilities to deter any Indian
aggression is also unacceptable for U.S., India and many others in world. Trumps
recent speech is also a veiled message about Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities,
which he also mentioned in his speech as “We must prevent nuclear weapons and
materials from coming into the hands of terrorists and being used against us, or
anywhere in the world, for that matter.”
Jawad Akram is an International Affairs Analyst. He has done Masters in
International Relations.