Amid a wave of protests in the US, Donald Trump has been inaugurated as the 45th US president. For many citizens and media and political analysts who monitored his election campaign and scrutinised his discourse on internal and international issues, Trump was unlikely to win and occupy the White House for the next four years. They were all proved wrong.
The entire world also looked at the events in the US with tremendous interest and a sense of unease. The speech that Trump delivered after he was sworn in focused on internal issues, and was tinged with nationalism.
The first order that he reportedly passed after taking charge aimed to exercise cuts on Obama’s health scheme. This indicated the beginning of a process of reversing almost all policies of the Obama administration regarding internal issues. Many believe that he will have to try his best to implement his promise to create jobs, revive industries and revise welfare-oriented measures. However, he is likely to face stiff opposition from his detractors and endure the wrath of the US media after he said media personnel were dishonest.
In his speech, he did not mention specific global issues. Trump declared that he would strengthen old alliances, create new ones and unite the civilised world to eradicate radical ‘Islamic terrorism’. During his election campaign, he said that Nato had lost its utility. But now, he not only talks about strengthening it but also aims to build new alliances to fight terrorism. This surely represents a climb-down from his earlier position regarding alliances. He needs a new alliance to fight terrorism and Pakistan will inevitably have to be included as a member of that alliance to ensure its success.
There is a well-considered view which has enjoyed bipartisan support in the US that, on the global level, it is imperative to continue the policies pursued by the previous regimes towards Asia and, in particular, India. Any retreat on that account would leave Asia under China’s hegemony. India is considered an effective counterweight to China’s burgeoning influence in the region and beyond. According to this line of reasoning, the US needs to help India expand its power and economic prowess. This would serve the geopolitical interests of the former in Asia and around the world as well as maintain the balance of power.
Trump probably cannot afford to undermine US interests by orchestrating a radical departure from this long-term view of the US’s role in world affairs. It is expected that under Trump the US will try to reinvigorate its efforts to expand civil-nuclear cooperation between the two countries, securing permanent seat in the UNSC for India, helping it clinch the membership of global non-proliferation regimes and secure an easy access to dual-use technologies.
As a natural corollary to tilt towards India, the US under Trump might increase pressure on Pakistan over alleged acts of terrorism in India and ask it to come clean. The Trump administration, like previous US administrations, is also likely to persist with US evasiveness in playing the role of a mediator on the Kashmir dispute in a bid to keep India in good stead. Enhanced relations with India, like US relations with Israel, will continue to be the cornerstone of US policy in our region. This, however, does not mean that Pakistan will be pushed to the wall for the sake of India. Relations with Pakistan would still be important for the US and vice versa.
Both countries are already engaged in recalibrating their relations which have been quite tricky and difficult, notwithstanding their alliance against terrorism. The US administration has always looked askance at Pakistan’s efforts to fight terrorism. It has often accused it of playing a double game and persisting with its policy of supporting the Haqqani Network – which is allegedly involved in acts of terrorism in Afghanistan – and patronising non-state militant groups responsible for terrorism in India. Afghanistan and India also seem to have forged an alliance to malign Pakistan.
However, the reality is that the present government and military establishment are sincerely engaged in taking indiscriminate action against all terrorist outfits and militant organisations based on Pakistan’s soil. Through Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan, the entire infrastructure of terrorists has been destroyed and all those entities – which are currently based in Afghanistan and crossed over to Pakistan when the US initiated military action against Al-Qaeda and Taliban regime after 9/11 – have been targeted indiscriminately. Pakistan has also initiated border management measures to check cross-border movement of terrorists.
The supporters and sympathisers of terrorists as well as their sleeper cells are also being targeted throughout the country through intelligence-based operations. Pakistan has also been forthcoming in helping India investigate the acts of terrorism in India. It has invariably shown its willingness to take action against militant outfits which, India believes, carries out acts of terrorism in India – provided it can show credible evidence of their involvement.
Unfortunately, India has failed to provide the evidence that Pakistan has been demanding and has instead focused on maligning and isolating the country. The reality is that India has been involved in fomenting terrorism in Pakistan. Afghanistan also continues to host TTP operatives who have been using Afghan soil for orchestrating terrorism in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Jalil Abbas Jilani – while referring to a brief conversation he had with Trump at a dinner that the latter hosted for foreign ambassadors – has claimed that the US president expressed hope to see better bilateral relations between the US and Pakistan in the future. This signifies a positive change in his attitude towards Pakistan, especially after a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a few months ago.
However, for mutually beneficial bilateral relations, Pakistan will need to establish the veracity of its new narrative against terrorist outfits, remove mistrust between the two countries and discredit the allegations of Afghanistan and India. It could propose the establishment of a joint monitoring and investigation mechanism to reveal the ground realities.
The writer is a freelance contributor.
Email: ashpak10gmail.com