- Pakistan desires mutually beneficial relationship with China and the US at the same time
- Government committed to eliminating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations
Pakistan-US relationship remains vitally important but the partnership between the two countries needs to be enduring, Ambassador to the United States Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry advocated during an interaction with foreign policy experts.
“Pakistan is looking for a broad-based, sustainable and not a transactional relationship with the United States,” Chaudhry said.
The ambassador told the World Affairs Council that “whenever Pakistan and the US worked together in the past, both the countries benefited and it had yielded positive results.”
Addressing the Afghan conundrum, Ambassador Chaudhry said peace in Afghanistan is Pakistan’s highest priority.
“A stable, prosperous and developed Afghanistan is not only in favour of Pakistan but the entire region,” he said, according to a Pakistan embassy statement.
Chaudhry noted that the United States has made massive investments in Afghanistan over the years and would be interested in taking the effort to a logical conclusion.
The first and foremost goal of the US in Afghanistan must be to strengthen Afghan National Security forces. Pakistan wants systematic border management along Pakistan-Afghanistan border in order to check the cross-border movement of miscreants effectively, Chaudhry emphasised.
He said blaming Pakistan for failure in Afghanistan is not true as Afghanistan has multiple problems which are not related to terrorism.
“Pakistan cannot be made a scapegoat,” he stated.
Pakistan, he said, firmly believes that a comprehensive approach is required to find an amicable solution to the Afghan problem.
There is no military solution to Afghanistan issue. A comprehensive political strategy is required, Chaudhry said.
Aizaz Chaudhry also addressed Pakistan-India relations, which have nosedived in recent months, something the United States does not want in view of its overriding focus on eliminating terror threat emanating from the region. The United States has used high-level diplomacy during the last 15 years to de-escalate Pakistan-India tensions on numerous occasions.
In his appearance at the World Affairs Council, Chaudhry told the audience that India has suspended the dialogue process which does not serve any purpose. Rather it further deteriorates the bilateral relations between the two countries, he added.
“Terrorism is a common enemy. Both the countries should cooperate with each other. Pakistan is ready for a dialogue with India whenever it is ready. As far as the Kashmir issue is concerned, Pakistan would continue to support innocent Kashmiris diplomatically, morally and politically.”
He said the latest insurgency in Indian Occupied Kashmir is indigenous but India is using force and committing horrendous human rights’ violations which breed hatred among Kashmiris against Indian occupation forces. For instance, Indian Occupation forces have blinded approx. 1000 Kashmiris by using pellet guns, he said.
During his talk, Ambassador Chaudhry also touched on China Pakistan Economic Corridor – a massive infrastructure project connecting surrounding regions via land and sea routes. He noted that Pakistan’s good relations with China are not a zero sum game for any other country including the United States.
“Pakistan wants to have a broad-based mutually beneficial relationship with China and the US at the same time.”
Islamabad, he said, is committed to eliminating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and that Pakistan would not allow its soil to be used against any other country and expects that no other country will allow anyone to operate from there against Pakistan.
Pakistan, he said, would like to further deepen its relations with the United States “as both countries have many commonalities and shared interests.”
“There is a willingness on both sides to work together,” he concluded.
The diplomat spoke in the wake of a series of meetings between the US and Pakistani officials in recent weeks, aimed at taking forward the relationship after years of close post-911 counterterrorism alliance hit a stalemate during the last year of Barack Obama presidency.
According to reports, President Trump and Prime Minister Sharif are likely to meet during this month’s Saudi-hosted summit between the United States and Arab and Islamic countries. Trump’s first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia and the summit with Muslim leaders is expected to revive Washington’s ties with the Arab world, overturning his predecessor Obama’s outreach to Iran.
But for Pakistan, the bilateral relationship with the United States is important at both bilateral and regional levels. As noted by Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry, the United States remains one of the largest trading partners for Pakistan and a large number of Pakistani-Americans serve as a bridge-building force.
In the regional context, the Trump administration is expected to soon unveil its Afghan policy, which in the words of National Security Adviser H R McMaster, is to have a broader approach including Pakistan, Afghanistan and the region.
If President Trump approves additional troops for Afghanistan – between 3000 and 5000 – as proposed by the Pentagon, the United States will likely need greater Pakistani cooperation to stabilise Afghanistan, which faces a fierce Afghan Taliban insurgency and the ISIS threat. The United States already has around 9000 troops in Afghanistan to back Kabul’s weakening security forces against militant threats.
While the Afghan war brought the United States and Pakistan together, it also led a spate of controversies that marred the relations including the US accusation that the Afghan Taliban have sanctuaries in Pakistan and Islamabad’s grievance that Kabul has allowed the Pakistani Taliban, the TTP, to have safe havens on its territory and also let India open a second front against Pakistan. Additionally, the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in a May 2011 US raid and cross-border fueling of a low-intensity insurgency in Balochistan also ebbed the ties.
Meanwhile, in the last few years, new players including Russia have entered Afghanistan’s theater of conflicts, and according to US officials, Moscow has even militarily supported the Afghan Taliban.
