A new beginning

Are Pakistan and the US, now headed by President Joe Biden, heading towards a new kind of relationship? A new paradigm on which to base their engagement with each other? Perhaps it is too early to say. But for the moment, beyond the question of Afghanistan, on which the US has little choice but to place at least some reliance on Pakistan, there seems to be little real effort by Washington to engage with Pakistan or to involve and include it in key conversations on a range of issues. Matters got off to a somewhat troubled start, when soon after Biden was sworn in as President, a court in Pakistan ordered the release of Omar Saeed Sheikh, the man found guilty of killing US Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. This did not please the US and dominated the first round of talks between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. While another round of talks has since been held, it is still unclear precisely how the US under Biden views Pakistan.

Initially the US administration did not invite Pakistan to a conference on climate change, which raised eyebrows as Pakistan was the only country among the 10 most populous countries in the world not to be invited to the event — especially so when Prime Minister Imran Khan had emphasised the significance he attached to climate change with his pledge to plant a billion trees. Analysts perceived it a snub for the country. However, when the issue was raised in the media, the US invited Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam to the summit.

Beyond the issue of whether Biden, caught up in a number of domestic and foreign policy issues, has the time to concentrate on Pakistan is an issue of precisely what direction relations can move in. A US Senate committee was recently told Pakistan had promised air access to the US into Afghanistan. This has been clearly denied by Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman who has clarified that Pakistan has not given the US any air rights to use Pakistani airspace.

The US has said it needs Pakistan to make headway in Afghanistan. This is primarily because of the perception that Pakistan has influence with the Taliban. While that may have been the case previously, analysts say this influence has over the years been greatly weakened. And it is uncertain how much leverage it has over the militant group. A leaked document has said that the US is also eager to involve Russia, China and India, in discussions on Afghanistan. This would make Pakistan a far less important player in the entire game. Pakistan, on the other hand, seeks a wider ranging relationship with the US — a geo-economic approach — addressing both the geographical location of the country and economic assistance from the US, as well as economic cooperation between the two countries. The question of whether this will be possible will depend a great deal in the coming months, on Pakistan’s handling of the delicate Afghanistan issue, which still remains a US focus and the prime reason it continues to talk to Pakistan directly, as well as other issues in the region, with the US showing over the last years that it has moved closer to India. What is needed at the moment is an honest appraisal by the US on what kind of relationship it is looking for with Pakistan.