Welcome overtures

After US President Trump's disparaging Twitter remarks about Pakistan and an angry Pakistani leadership saying its piece both sides seem to be cooling off, making some conciliatory comments though they stay stuck to their respective positions on the issue of contention: US demand to act against alleged Haqqani network safe havens on Pakistani soil. Speaking in a TV programme, Pakistan Army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor said, "Pakistan continues to consider the US an ally.... We consider them allies. Our relationship has had its ups and downs, but still we are friends." And that "cooperative engagement can take us forward but coercion won't help." The same day State Department spokesperson, Heather Nauert, told journalists "Pakistan is an important partner, we have a lot of issues in that region, Pakistan knows that, we all know that, and we try to work carefully together on some of those issues." Both the State Department and the White House also said President Trump can follow through on his threat to stop US assistance to Pakistan if it does not change its Afghan policy. To which Islamabad has already responded several times, saying it does not need economic assistance but respect and recognition for the huge sacrifices this country has made fighting the war against terrorism.
Indeed, for long US-Pakistan relations have been of transactional nature. Much of the economic assistance Trump talked about threatening "no more" was given for services rendered. It is quite insignificant now. Pakistan has also been diversifying its arms purchases. Hence, as acknowledged by various American commentators, US no longer has the kind of leverage over this country it used to have in the past. Threats of aid cut won't work. As regards the contention over Haqqani sanctuaries, independent observers point out that 43 percent of Afghanistan is either controlled by the Taliban or is under their influence. From which it follows that they do not need to have safe havens on Pakistani soil. That though may not mean the claims that Pakistan is hedging its bets and deems the Haqqanis as a strategic asset, are without a basis. In fact, the US indirectly recognizes the value of such a policy when it seeks Pakistan's help to talk to the Taliban. It cannot be expected to fight them and bring them to the negotiating table, too. Besides, sooner or later this conflict will be resolved through negotiations. The US will leave at some point but the Afghan Taliban are not going to go anywhere. It would be unwise therefore for this country to treat them as enemies. It must not give them any support, though.
Pakistan has other interests to protect as well. By assigning - in his August policy statement on Afghanistan and South Asia - India a greater role in Afghanistan, Trump has displayed he has no understanding of this region's geo-politics. He has only fueled Pakistan's fear of encirclement by its arch rival, India, from both eastern and western flanks. That won't help stabilize Afghanistan. The US needs to stop riding rough shod on Pakistan's sensitivities. A sincere Pak-American cooperation is the best bet for bringing peace and stability to that war-ravaged country.