Foreign policy analyst, Dr Tanvir Ahmad Khan, stressed the need for Pakistan to devise a strategy for long-term US presence in Afghanistan. “Americans are not leaving Afghanistan. Central Asia is the cockpit of multinational rivalries,” said Dr Khan at a round-table organised on Wednesday by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS).
Dr Khan argued that Pakistan is viewed as a weak client state in the US that should obey its dictates.
He said the US wants Pakistan to secure its interests in Afghanistan and not to obstruct Indian ambitions of becoming a regional power to counter the Chinese influence.
He stated that after the terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, the US went on a maligning campaign against the Pakistan army and its premier intelligence agency, the ISI, through the media, which hurt bilateral relations.
“Pakistan is not a hostile country to America,” said Dr. Khan. He said that the Pak-US relations were improving but that the bad patch in the relations has helped rationalise the bilateral discourse and is likely to eliminate idealistic expectations for future relations between the two countries.
Dr Khan said irritants remain in the relations like the drone attacks-which he believed would not come to an end any time soon-and nuclear issue, as well as Pakistan’s overtures towards other countries like China, Iran, and Russia that would most probably be viewed with disapproval in Washington.
Dr Khan stressed the need for Pak-US relations to shift from its current strategic focus to a more people-centric and economic focus. He also urged the US to play its role in bringing India and Pakistan closer.
He was of the view that the war in Afghanistan had dented the US policy of bringing India and Pakistan closer. He criticised the Indo-US nuclear deal as exacerbating the nuclear arms race in the region.
Defense Analyst Lt Gen (r) Talat Masood said the US is bringing India and Pakistan closer as a by-product of its policy to keep India focused on China and Pakistan on militancy and extremism.
He was of the view that the major difference between Pakistan and the US is on the issue of militancy.
According to Gen Masood, Pakistan considers extremist militant elements a constant element in Pakistani society for some time to come; this is why it wants to evolve a solution to coexist with them, while the US wants Pakistan to crack down on them.
German Embassy Charge de Affaires Stephan Roken attributed Pakistani media’s obsession with covering even the least important aspects of the US foreign policy to Pakistan’s low level of self-confidence. He said that Germany wanted Pakistan to be a self-confident international player.
Ambassador Khalid Mahmood stressed the need for Pakistan and the US to cooperate in the field of energy sector.
Ambassador BA Malik said Pakistan’s real enemy is militancy and extremism and not the US.
He also disagreed with the perception that America had lost the war in Afghanistan.
American Embassy Deputy Political Counselor John Hill appreciated the hopes for objectivity in the Pak-US relations with the review of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS).
Other participants of the roundtable discussion included IRS President Ashraf Azim; Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi, Malik Qasim Mustafa, Romanian Embassy First Secretary Dragos Luca; Prof Zhou Rong of the Chinese Guang Ming Daily and French Embassy Press Attaché Marine Destrez.
Dr Tanvir you are quite right! Since 2004 I have commented in Western and Pakistan media why US wants to be in Afghanistan, even if the Taliban surrender along with the Neocon's twin the Al Qaida. Afghanistan is a Strategic Pivot from where the US Admin
can swing to create the fuss they need for their vested interest in six regions that border Afghanistan. Tapi is a small excuse that they wish to protect from their own goons or are we so naive not to learn any lessons.
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