- Could Trump come visiting?
It seems that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to the USA has set off a flurry of activity, all related to Afghanistan. The first US move was an Administration request to Congress of sales of F16 spare parts to Pakistan. That was quickly followed by Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad’s trip to Islamabad, where he met the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the COAS, before he went on to Doha, where he led a US team which met the Taliban negotiating team. He expressed optimism about the meeting, and it is in that connection that US Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells has led a delegation to Pakistan. It is hoped that the Doha talks will result in an agreement with the Taliban that could in turn lead to US President Donald Trump visiting Afghanistan in October. If he is in this part of the world, then he might as well come to Pakistan as well. Assistant Secretary Wells’ team is here to look at that possibility.
However, while the PTI government could well be euphoric about that prospect, it would also do well to keep an eye open on how far it was contributing to a concrete settling of Pakistan’s legitimate concerns. Pakistan, unfortunately, has already experienced US ability to ignore Pakistan’s legitimate concerns once its immediate needs are over, in the endgame of the war with the USSR, when it found itself abandoned and left to deal aloe with the consequences, in the shape of a massive refugee problem, the Kalashnikov culture and the heroin menace, not to forget religious extremism. There must be no being left holding the baby; the benefits that are supposed to accrue from the USA must be clear and up-front.
For example, one of the consequences of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan was the opportunity it provided the USA to cosy up to India at the expense of Pakistan. President Trump’s talk of mediation on Kashmir must be followed up. The leverage Pakistan has generated over the USA because of the Afghan situation must be used to translate into a permanent settlement of Pakistan’s regional issues, the biggest being over Kashmir with India. It should make the USA realise that its new friendship with India allows it to achieve peace in South Asia as a whole, not just part.
