A joint statement was issued at the end of parleys between US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday in which Pakistan was urged to make sure that its territory was not used for cross-border terrorism attacks and called upon to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of 26/11 Mumbai and Pathan kot attacks has incensed Pakistan which has rightly dismissed it as one-sided, misleading and contrary to the diplomatic norms.
However, it has not come as a surprise for the people who are savvy of the perennial US stance in this respect. A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting between Trump and Modi in June 2017 also made a similar reference regarding Pakistan. Perhaps an excerpt from that joint statement would be pertinent to be quoted. It said, “The leaders called on Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries. They further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, Pathankot and other cross-border terrorist attacks perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups.”
The joint statement issued after a meeting between US President Biden and Narendra Modi in 2023 also reiterated the same stance. While reiterating the expansion of ties between the two countries and reinforcing the strategic cooperation between them, they did not miss the opportunity to take a swipe at Pakistan concerning terrorism. The portion of the joint statement relating to terrorism said,” The United States and India stand together to counter global terrorism and unequivocally condemn terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations. Prime Minister Modi and President Biden reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups,s including Al-Qaida, ISIS, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen. They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism and the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks. They called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to be brought to justice.”
As far as terrorism is concerned, the US has always looked askance at Pakistan and endorsed the Indian narrative.
From the foregoing, it is quite evident that as far as terrorism is concerned, the US has always looked askance at Pakistan and endorsed the Indian narrative in this regard. It will also not be out of place to mention that the US administration, despite Pakistan’s sacrifices and role as a front-line state in the fight against terrorism and playing a facilitating role in agreeing the Taliban and the US to end the fighting, has been accusing her of duplicitous conduct. Pakistan invariably has been giving explanations to defend its role and reminding the US leaders of the state terrorism by India and her blatant violations of human rights within India and IIOJ&K. Pakistan has even provided a dossier to the US, UN and other countries regarding Indian involvement in terrorist acts within Pakistan but nobody seems to care about it.
The reason is that relations between the states are not conducted based on the principles enshrined in the UN Charter and Conventions on Human Rights. Strategic, political and commercial interests determine the nature of relations between them. As far as India is concerned, it enjoys the tacit support of the US for its violation of human rights. The US and its allies look the other way when it comes to state terrorism by India, even though India was involved in the murder of a Sikh leader in Canada and a similar abortive attempt in the USA. Because India is their strategic partner in the ‘Contain China’ policy’ and they have very strong commercial relations with her. Therefore, they see the whole scenario through the prism of their strategic and commercial interests.
Even in this recent meeting, apart from other things, Trump has tried to advance the commercial interests of the USA by making an offer to ramp up weapons sales to India, including supersonic F-35 fighter Jets. This is based on a two-pronged strategy, i.e. to advance US commercial interests and strengthen Indian defence capability to be able to play an effective role in any eventuality springing from the ‘contain China’ policy. As a collateral benefit to India, it also tilts the balance of power in her favour viz-a-viz Pakistan. But who cares??
The foreign office spokesman may be right in pointing out that such steps accentuate military imbalance in the region and undermine strategic stability, besides being unhelpful in achieving the objective of durable peace in South Asia, but the dilemma is that peace in the region is not a priority of the US. With Trump at the helm of affairs, it sounds like daydreaming. No amount of reasoning and pleading by Pakistan is going to have any impact on the US policy to support India. The USA gives a damn to international responsibility. It has been using the human rights issue selectively wherever it suited her interests. Why would it care about human rights violations in IIOJ&K and the oppression let loose on the minorities in India, particularly against Muslims?
US support for a permanent Security Council seat for India, transfer of nuclear technology to her and securing a waiver from NSG in that regard exhibit ranting testimony to US tilt towards India. The question is that with so much at stake, why would the US or, for that matter, Trump, whose topmost priority is to promote American interests, annoy India for Pakistan? The policy to appease India suits the US.
Under the permeating situation, the top priority for Pakistan should be to formulate a strategy to thwart negative fall-out from the US-India nexus while continuing efforts to remain engaged with the Trump administration on the bilateral level to find common ground for cooperation in other fields. Strengthening the state edifice through orchestrating political stability and economic development can greatly help in this regard. It is indeed the prime responsibility of all the political leaders and parties and other stakeholders to make this possible by placing the national interests above their narrow political agendas. The country surely is at a crossroads.
The writer is a former diplomat and freelance columnist