‘Trump policies undermined US position’

LAHORE : Former Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said it is difficult to contest the fact that Pakistan's international goodwill has decreased over the past decade and the lesson for Pakistan is to not test its friends to the point that it become an embarrassment to those friends.

She said this while speaking at a session at the Lahore Literature Festival titled 'Beyond The American Prism'. The session was about the new international situation where the Trump administration has hinted at taking a back seat from global leadership with the Paris Climate Accord, criticism of the NATO Alliance and protectionism being the key indicators.

BBC journalist Lyse Doucet moderated the session with European Council on Foreign Relations director Mark Leonard, Former Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, journalist and author Zahid Hussain, journalist and author Christopher de Bellaigue.

Hina Khar went on to say that the biggest mistake Pakistan has made in the past was that it tried to manage its problems through outside power. "Instead of putting the onus upon us we looked to sort the Kashmir issue, the Afghan problem and the Indian hostility through the US, China and Saudi Arabia, which never allowed the country to build capacity in that domain to invent an organic and thus sustainable solution, the strings of which would be in our own hands, not strummed from oceans away", she said.

Talking about the Trumpian America, she said that three major characteristics, vis-à-vis credibility, stability and predictability define a world power. Trump, she said, lost his credibility when he tweeted about the $33 billion given to Pakistan, which in fact was not more than 10 billion with over four billion given to the forces to fight the War on Terror while a little over five billion to the civilian institutions.

She argued how the impulsive policies and shifting alliances of the Trump's America has also devoid it of stability and predictability which has almost thrown the US off the world leader position.

Hina Khar openly doubted the objectives of the US in Afghanistan and said that if a previous border with Pakistan is prime reason for the state of Afghanistan, why has US not installed border posts along the border. She argued that it has become increasingly difficult for Pakistan to configure its approach towards Afghanistan, because the US does not take a clear line.

European Council on Foreign Relations Director Mark Leonard said that the US was part of the furniture gave stability to the world, one can agree or disagree on the merits or demerits of it but it was stability and nonetheless. However, President Trump thinks this order doesn't empower the United States but weakens it. As a result, the US in re-calibrating its role is shrinking its objectives.

He said while the cartographers are considering a word without the US traditional role on the world map, China is coming in swiftly to create its room with soft and hard infrastructure, through the One Belt One Road initiative (OBOR)."In many ways, Pakistan is the front running country for this new developing world because of its relationship with both US and China. In this new crazy unpredictable world, Pakistan has found itself as a model for the world of the future", he concluded.

Journalist and Author Zahid Hussain said that objectively speaking the US has fought three wars in one war in Afghanistan based on the shifting objectives. He mentioned that the wall of distrust between the two countries is huge.

Zahid Hussain, who has recently visited Afghanistan, said while the US has been continuously alleging terrorists’ sanctuaries inside Pakistan, it is an undeniable fact that there are sanctuaries of anti-Pakistan forces across the border in Afghanistan.