WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: The United States has not imposed any requirement on Pakistan to choose sides between Washington and Beijing, a State Department spokesperson said, emphasising it valued the strategic relationship with Islamabad.
The statement comes as Pakistan strives to keep opportunities open in all directions, seeking to balance its relations and avoid having to take sides between two powers.
In June, Prime Minister Imran Khan said it was unfair for the US and Western countries to pressure Pakistan to choose sides and downgrade its relationship with China.
But over the years, Washington has criticised Islamabad for purportedly supporting the Taliban. Since President Joe Biden came into the White House in January last year, he has not engaged with Khan.
“We’ve made the point all along that it is not a requirement for any country around the world to choose between the US and China. [But] it is our intention to provide choices to countries when it comes to what the relationship with the US looks like,” Ned Price said, according to a transcript of his press conference, when asked if Pakistan was working “so closely with China” because it felt “abandoned” by Washington.
“… we think partnership with the United States conveys a series of advantages that countries typically would not find when it comes to the sorts of partnerships […] ‘partnerships’ may be the wrong term, the sorts of relationships that [China] has sought to have around the world.”
The US has accused China of lending to poorer countries and leaving them struggling to repay debts, and, therefore, vulnerable to pressure from Beijing.
But that is rejected by China, which accuses some in the West of promoting this narrative to tarnish its international image.
Price’s comments coincide with the much-hyped tour of Khan to China, in part, to reinvigorate the game-changer China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The project has earned American criticism, including that it burdens the country with mountains of debt, allowing China to use “debt-trap diplomacy” to gain access to strategic assets. Both Pakistan and China vehemently deny the claims.
21 sectors — including trade, information technology and the relocation of Chinese industries to Pakistan — have been “identified to be discussed with the Chinese leadership” during Khan’s visit, Minister for InforÂmation and Broadcast Fawad Chaudhry said Wednesday.
Price further said: “Pakistan is a strategic partner of the United States. We have an important relationship with the government in Islamabad, and it’s a relationship that we value across a number of fronts.”
The spokesperson refused to comment when asked to comment on Indian National Congress President Rahul Gandhi statement suggesting the revocation of occupied Kashmir’s special status helped bring Pakistan and China “closer than ever”.
“I will leave it to the Pakistanis and [China] to speak to their relationship. I certainly would not endorse those remarks,” he said.
