EDITORIAL: The atmospherics in the US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's meetings in Islamabad can best be described as frosty; not the least because she poured cold water over any expectations that Islamabad might have had with her remarks in Mumbai, where she implied that Washington no longer sought a "broad-based relationship" with Pakistan and that she was just coming here with a "specific and narrow purpose" of talking about terrorism and Afghanistan. That's explains why her reception protocol was downgraded and, in stark departure from the Foreign Office's tradition of having guests received by their counterparts, she was met by the Director General (Americas). In this way both sides played their part in making sure that this exchange was a non-starter even before they sat down.
Diplomats don't shoot off the hip, so Wendy Sherman meant what she said. And since part of the FO's job is to translate official communication into language that the bosses can understand, surely it would have conveyed to the prime minister that the Americans seem to be taking the first steps towards disengaging with Pakistan. At the very least they are considering a very serious downgrade from "major non-Nato ally" that came with the beginning of the war that has just ended. It's a good thing that the two sides will still talk about Afghanistan, as well as terrorism, because there's nothing else to make Washington look this way at this point in time. Yet a constructive engagement with the US is very much in Pakistan's own interest. Reports doing the round in the local press, not denied by the government, also suggest that Wendy Sherman has been requested to play a part in engineering a thaw with Washington as well as nudging the IMF (International Monetary Fund) into accepting some of our terms while renegotiating the bailout programme.
The talks, at some point, should also take up the issue of the US suddenly blaming Pakistan for anything and everything that goes wrong in Afghanistan. It would do nobody any good if we sit down to talk about terrorism and get the same old "do more" whenever they make a mistake. Meantime, it is very good news that the Taliban and the Americans have also started talking about issues like terrorism and getting foreign nationals out of the country. The Taliban struck the heart of the matter right at the outset by warning the Americans against trying to destabilise their country, because that is exactly what they are doing by cutting off aid and freezing its central bank's funds abroad.
Going forward, should these talks hit a brick wall because the Americans refuse to budge about the money and the Taliban take to the black market with their poppy crop, then blaming Pakistan is the last thing that America should do. If Washington is really so worried about terrorism in a region that it waged a 20-year war to wreck it, then it must immediately begin pouring money into Afghanistan. Pakistani PM Imran Khan's suggestion of a Marshall Plan-like aid programme for the country seems as good an idea as any on the table. However, for anything to work Washington must first come to the talks with the understanding that it is no longer in the position to call the shots in this region. The most constructive and practical steps towards lasting peace are being taken by countries around Afghanistan-China and Pakistan in particular.
The best the US can do right now is heed to countries, like Pakistan, that have made the biggest contribution on the ground. And also make sure that Afghanistan's aid is not held back any longer. If it is engaging with Pakistan to discuss Afghanistan and terrorism, then it must first talk about the money.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.