WASHINGTON: Senator Bob Menendez said he has asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to urge President Joe Biden to hold a conversation with Prime Minister Imran Khan in an effort to “rebuild” the long fraught relationship with Pakistan.
Menendez, who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, underscored the need for such conversations while speaking at a fundraising event hosted at the residence of a board member of the American-Pakistani Public Affairs Committee (APPAC).
“I think it would serve us well to have such a conversation and, you know, when we have these conversations, they are honest, and that means they are also transparent,” the senator said late Sunday, referring to the request he had made to Blinken.
Such a course, he said, means “where there is an agreement, we build upon it and where there is disagreement we talk about how do we get through that disagreement.”
“I think there is an extraordinary moment in which this is a relationship that can be rebuilt to what it once was,” Menendez said.
“And if we can rebuild on it we, I hope, we can expand on it — not just about Pakistan in the context of a military or security dimension, but much greater — talking about an incredibly large population that is very young; there is tremendous opportunity to build upon the economic dynamism that we create,” he said.
“And that’s what I look forward to be able to continue to promote as your US senator,” Menendez told the APPAC members.
Diplomatic affront
Biden’s apparent avoidance to engage with Prime Minister Khan since the former assumed office has been viewed as a diplomatic affront and seemingly become a point of contention between the two governments with US lawmakers criticising the reluctance as well.
In an interview with the Financial Times in August, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf had made clear that Pakistan had other options if Biden continued to ignore the nation’s leadership.
“The president of the United States hasn’t spoken to the prime minister of such an important country who the US itself says is make-or-break in some cases, in some ways, in Afghanistan — we struggle to understand the signal, right?” Yusuf told The publication.
“We’ve been told every time that […] [the phone call] will happen, it’s technical reasons or whatever. But frankly, people don’t believe it,” he had said. “If a phone call is a concession, if a security relationship is a concession, Pakistan has options,” he added, without elaborating further.
At the time, a Biden administration official said there were “still a number of world leaders President Biden has not been able to speak with personally yet. He looks forward to speaking with Prime Minister Khan when the time is right”.
Meanwhile, the prime minister himself said in August he was not really “waiting” for a phone call. “I keep hearing that President Biden hasn’t called me. It’s his business. It’s not like I am waiting for any phone call,” he said in response to a question from a Reuters correspondent.
Later in September, the premier had opined that the US president was “quite busy” to call him and discuss the regional situation.
On October 11, during an interview with Middle East Eye, the prime minister said again he still had not yet spoken to President Biden — a fact which the interviewers described as “astonishing”.
