Ties between Pakistan, US at new low this year

US-Pakistanrelations hit a new low in 2017 and a series of high-level contactsbetween the two countries exposed the weakness in this relationshipinstead of strengthening it.It was also during 2017 that the USadministration announced a new strategy for winning the war inAfghanistan, urging Pakistan to join the US-led efforts to defeat theTaliban in the battlefield.The policy recognises Pakistan’s right to reject the US offer but warns that there will be consequences if it decides to do so.Instatements, US President Donald Trump, his vice-president Mike Pence,secretaries of defence and state, and national security advisers andother senior officials highlighted the consequences that the policyhints at, from stopping US economic and military assistance to raisingdoubts about Pakistan’s ability to provide “responsible stewardship” toits nuclear assets.Some officials warned that Pakistan could “lose territory” if it did not eradicate terrorist safe havens from its soil.Others said the US could take “unilateral action” in areas of divergence with Pakistan.Thestatements, along with the pronouncement that India now is thestrongest US ally, alarmed Pakistan, forcing it to look for otheroptions to protect its interests.Initially, Pakistan reactedcautiously to these threats, but on Thursday, military spokesman MajorGeneral Asif Ghafoor told the United States and Afghanistan that it istime for them to do more for Pakistan, instead of asking Islamabad to doso.“No organised infrastructure of any banned organisation ispresent in Pakistan. We have fought an imposed and imported war twice inPakistan and now we cannot do any more for anyone,” he said.But thesame day, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to partner withPakistan against terrorism, indicating that the Trump administrationstill hopes to persuade Islamabad to accept its demands despite therecent bitterness.The Pakistani establishment’s strong reaction tothese demands followed a warning from Vice-President Pence thatPresident “Trump has put Pakistan on notice”, and that “Pakistan hasmuch to gain from partnering with the United States, and much to lose bycontinuing to harbour criminals and terrorists”.The warnings and high-level visits to Pakistan started in August.Inthe last four months, half a dozen US officials have visited Islamabadto persuade Pakistan to support the new US policy, including Secretaryof State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defence James Mattis, Centcom chiefGeneral Joseph Votel, and Trump South Asia adviser Lisa Curtis andAssistant Secretary of State Alice G Wells.The visitors met keyPakistani leaders including Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, ArmyChief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)chief Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar.However, the only positivecomment that came out of such contacts was the expression of a desire tocontinue working for “a common ground”.Tillerson said after hisOctober visit that he told Pakistani leadership that Washington wouldimplement its new strategy with or without their support.“And if youdon’t want to do that, don’t feel you can do it, we’ll adjust ourtactics and our strategies to achieve the same objective a differentway,” he said.The next visitor was Mattis who repeated a US call onthe Pakistan government to “do more” after a meeting with Pakistanileaders early this month.This lack of progress in these contactsshows differences between Islamabad and Washington over the new USstrategy which claims that Pakistan “often gives safe haven to agents ofchaos, violence, and terror”.While announcing the new strategy,Trump also said that the US has been “paying Pakistan billions andbillions of dollars at the same time they are housing the veryterrorists that we are fighting” but this must stop now.Pakistansays that US leaders continue to repeat a false claim – that Islamabadshelters terrorists – and reminds them that friends “do not put eachother on notice”.Michael Kugelman, deputy director for South Asia atthe US-based Wilson Centre, says he does not believe such threats couldchange Pakistan’s response to the US demand in the near future.“From a Pakistani perspective, it makes perfect sense to have the Afghan Taliban in their corner,” said Kugelman.“Pakistan,just like everyone else in the region, assumes that eventually, UStroops will withdraw from Afghanistan,” he told Al Jazeera.When thatwithdrawal happens, Kugelman added, there was a risk of “rampantdestabilisation and civil war in Afghanistan”, and a relationship withthe Afghan Taliban would be valuable for Pakistan in that context.