Comment by Riaz Haq on June 10, 2016 at 8:18am

#US, #Pakistan Seek to Mend Fraying Relationship. Senior #American Officials Visiting #Islamabad

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-pakistan-seek-to-mend-fraying-rel...


Senior U.S. officials held “candid discussions" with their counterparts in Pakistan Friday on issues, including the recent drone attack that killed the Afghan Taliban’s chief in Pakistan and put fresh strains on already uneasy bilateral relations.

The prime minister’s adviser on foreign policy, Sartaj Aziz, led the Pakistani delegation. The U.S. team included Peter Lavoy, senior director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. National Security Council, and Richard Olson, the U.S. special representative to the two neighboring countries.

“The adviser conveyed a strong message to the United States that the May 21 drone strike was not only a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and a breach of principles of the United Nations Charter, but has also vitiated bilateral ties,” said a statement issued after the meeting.

Peace talks

Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, China and the United States, was engaged in “serious efforts” to revive peace and reconciliation talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, but the drone strike has “seriously undermined" those efforts, Aziz told the U.S. delegation.

Pakistani authorities contend that Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor had been about to agree to join peace talks between the warring sides in Afghanistan at the time he was killed in the drone strike.

“It was emphasized that any future drone strike in Pakistan will be detrimental to our common desire to strengthen relations,” said the statement.

The U.S. drone attack targeted and killed Mansoor while he was in a vehicle traveling through Pakistan’s border province of Baluchistan, under a pseudonym, following a secret trip to Iran.


U.S. and Afghan officials have long maintained that Taliban leaders are freely using Pakistani soil for plotting and staging attacks in Afghanistan. Islamabad denies its intelligence agency supports the Islamist insurgency.

U.S. delegates again raised that issue in Friday’s discussions.

Counterterrorism measures

“In response to U.S. queries on safe havens for the Taliban, it was emphasized that Pakistan is already pursuing its objective of eliminating all militants and terrorists from its soil,” the statement said, referring to Islamabad’s counterterrorism measures.

Pakistani officials conveyed to U.S. interlocutors their concerns about the presence on Afghan soil of fugitive militants of the outlawed Pakistani Taliban or TTP.

“Pakistan also expects action by Afghan forces against TTP operatives in Afghanistan. These steps would also help to promote better relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan and reduce mistrust,” noted the statement.

It quoted Lavoy of the U.S. delegation as reiterating that President Barack Obama was committed to improving relations with Pakistan.

Despite renewed tensions, Aziz told reporters ahead of Friday's meeting that Islamabad’s relations with Washington “are still relevant and important.” He was responding to questions on whether deepening defense ties between the U.S. and Pakistan's archrival India were working in Islamabad.

“If their relationship with India upsets the conventional and nuclear balance in the region, it would affect our ties and would also be detrimental for peace in the region,” said the Pakistani adviser.

Members of the U.S. delegation later met with Pakistan's military chief, General Raheel Sharif. They were joined by General John Nicholson, commander of the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.

A statement issued after the meeting said General Sharif expressed his “serious concern” about the U.S. drone strike and said that blaming Pakistan for instability in Afghanistan is unfortunate.

“All stakeholders need to understand Pakistan’s challenges with regard to a porous border, inter-tribal linkages and the decades-old presence of over 3 million [Afghan] refugees,” Sharif told the U.S. delegates.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 16, 2016 at 8:55am

US Senate approves $800m fund for "strategic partner" #Pakistan, rejects "strategic partner" #India bill http://indianexpress.com/article/world/world-news/us-senate-approve... … via @vuukle


US Senate approves $800m fund to ‘long-standing strategic partner’ Pakistan

On Thursday, the US Senate had rejected the bill on India's ‘global strategic and defence partner’ status.


The US Senate has passed its draft of the National Defense Authorization Bill, which includes provision to set up a new fund to reimburse Pakistan for its efforts in war against terrorism.
The $800 million has been authorized under a provision called the ‘Pakistan Security Enhancement Authorisation’, reports Dawn.
The draft also fences $300m behind a similar Haqqani network provision that has existed in the annual defense authorization acts since the fiscal year 2015.


The proposed reimbursement mechanism for Islamabad replaces the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), which was used to reimburse both Afghanistan and Pakistan for their efforts to combat terrorism.
In total, Pakistan has received $3.1 billion since 2013 under the CSF. But this fund expires in the current financial year. The US Senate Armed Services Committee in a report filed with the draft Defense Bill called Pakistan “a long-standing strategic partner” and stressed on the need to continue a strong relationship with the country.
It also noted that after 9/11, Islamabad has been a vital partner of Washington in efforts to combat terrorism in South Asia.
While both houses of the Congress have passed their versions of the Defense Bill, now a conference committee will be formed to develop a consensus draft. After the consensus draft is passed from both houses of the Congress again, it will be sent to the President for signature.
The bill also requires Islamabad to keep open ground communication lines to Afghanistan for receiving reimbursements from this fund.
The House of Representatives last week also passed another bill, which linked $450m from a total of $900m proposed for Pakistan to take action against the Haqqani network.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 18, 2016 at 10:47am

#India Caucus in #US Congress, largest single country caucus, pillar of support in #Washington The Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-...

The India-Caucus, the largest country specific caucus in the us House of Representatives, is a pillar of support for relationship between the two countries and is well poised to play an important role in strengthening India-US ties, India's top diplomat to the US has said. 

Powerful and influential American lawmakers, including Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce and its Ranking Member Eliot Engel along with the two Co-Chairs of the Caucus Ami Bera and George Holding, attended and addressed the reception during which they praised Singh's contribution in strengthening India-US ties. 


Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47624978.cms?utm_so...

Comment by Riaz Haq on July 6, 2021 at 5:04pm

#JFK hosted Pak President Ayub Khan at Mount Vernon when #Pakistan was an important partner for #UnitedStates in 1961. In 1962, #Kennedy asked Ayub to stay out of #India-#China war. In 2021, #Biden has yet to speak with #ImranKhan https://brook.gs/3AuERV8 via @BrookingsInst

It was First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy who conceived of the summit at Mount Vernon between her husband John F. Kennedy and Pakistani President Mohammad Ayub Khan. She was inspired by the Kennedys’ visit to the Habsburgs’ Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna earlier in the year. She quietly approached the managers of the Mount Vernon estate, who eagerly agreed to host the Pakistanis. She also arranged for the jewelry store Tiffany’s to provide the flowers and decorations for the dinner.

Pakistan was an important partner for the United States in 1961, linked by treaty to the containment of the Soviet Union and China. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) flew U2 surveillance flights from Pakistani bases to monitor China’s emerging nuclear arsenal. The CIA also secretly supported Tibetan rebels fighting for independence from an airbase in what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Ayub Khan had just suspended Pakistani cooperation with the Tibet covert operation because Kennedy had promised India a large economic aid package and signaled that a closer relationship with New Delhi was coming. The Pakistani dictator was against a closer American relationship with India. Shutting down the Tibet operation was a quiet behind the scenes way of expressing unease with Kennedy’s tilting towards India.

At the request of Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, JFK took Ayub Khan for a private one-on-one stroll in the mansion garden and asked the Pakistani leader to reopen the airbase for secret resupply flights to the rebels in Tibet. Ayub Khan agreed but asked for a commitment that no American military equipment would ever be provided to India without prior consultation with Pakistan. Kennedy agreed.

The dinner was a great success. The best and brightest of the new administration were there. The main course was poulet chasseur made in the White House and then reheated in a portable army kitchen in the grounds of the mansion.

The next spring Mrs. Kennedy traveled to India and Pakistan. It was the first trip abroad alone by a first lady in the television age. She dazzled viewers everywhere, including back home.

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The 1962 crisis set in train the dynamics that would lead decades later to the geopolitics of today with the United States aligned with India and Pakistan aligned with China. It helped spark the nuclear arms race in Asia. The crisis resonates throughout Asia today.

Today Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world, with one of the most active nuclear weapons programs. It is China’s closest and most important ally. Relations with India remain tense. Most immediately, Pakistan is supporting the Taliban offensive designed to topple the Afghan government in Kabul after the American withdrawal, though it publicly says it wants a political solution, not a Taliban military victory. The Pakistani army gives the Taliban safe haven, arms, training, and logistical support which are crucial to their ability to operate.

President Joe Biden has yet to talk to Prime Minister Imran Khan once since taking office. Imran Khan has recently spoken publicly about Islamabad’s close ties to Beijing, praising it as a role model and defending its oppression of its Uyghur Muslims. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has spoken with Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa more than once but has yet to meet with him in person. For the Afghan withdrawal, it is probably too late to change Pakistan’s policy to back the Taliban. The puzzle is why the administration is not engaging more actively with this important country.

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