US-Indo-Pak Relations
Sunday, July 12, 2009
The News International, Pakistan, Sunday, July 12, 2009
The complexity of the relationship between America and the countries of the sub-continent almost defies analysis. As a nation we are heavily dependent on American aid and support in a host of ways from military to civil, from equipment and intelligence to governance and livestock breeding. Karachi was recently plastered with signs in Urdu and English erected by a political party saying ‘Go America, go’. A poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org in the last week reveals that there has been a significant shift in public opinion opposed to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda but that Pakistanis do not trust president Obama and his administration. Seventy per cent of those polled were sympathetic to government actions in Swat and elsewhere but a large majority was opposed to the US-led war in Afghanistan. We mostly welcome the aid – indeed it is a truism that we would find it difficult to survive without it – but have little trust in the motives of the hand that delivers it.
The most recent wrinkle in the love/hate relationship between the superpower and the suppliant concerns the reshaping of Americas relationship with India – and Pakistan. The normally torpid realms of foreign affairs where matters and change proceed at a slow crawl, are – comparatively speaking – moving at a brisk trot. America is casting off the skin of the Bush era and a new skin with a slightly – but not radically – different pattern is emerging. America needs both countries to be ‘on side’ but for widely differing (yet interlocking) reasons. India is an emerging regional superpower which America sees as a counterweight to a bullish China. Pakistan and Afghanistan are of crucial strategic importance to America and both have deep inherent instabilities as well as an assortment of wars and insurgencies being fought within their collective borders. India is currently concerned that American aid will be turned from ploughshare into sword. The US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, has moved swiftly to counteract Indian fears that the aid that is coming to Pakistan will be diverted into the hands of extremists or used to boost our military assets in such a way as to threaten India. Blake said … “The new focus in terms of our relationship with Pakistan is to dramatically increase economic assistance to Pakistan to help that country overcome some of its economic challenges and to extend the writ of the government to other parts of Pakistan. And all of those things should be very much in India’s interest as well.”
Source
The complexity of the relationship between America and the countries of the sub-continent almost defies analysis. As a nation we are heavily dependent on American aid and support in a host of ways from military to civil, from equipment and intelligence to governance and livestock breeding. Karachi was recently plastered with signs in Urdu and English erected by a political party saying ‘Go America, go’. A poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org in the last week reveals that there has been a significant shift in public opinion opposed to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda but that Pakistanis do not trust president Obama and his administration. Seventy per cent of those polled were sympathetic to government actions in Swat and elsewhere but a large majority was opposed to the US-led war in Afghanistan. We mostly welcome the aid – indeed it is a truism that we would find it difficult to survive without it – but have little trust in the motives of the hand that delivers it.
The most recent wrinkle in the love/hate relationship between the superpower and the suppliant concerns the reshaping of Americas relationship with India – and Pakistan. The normally torpid realms of foreign affairs where matters and change proceed at a slow crawl, are – comparatively speaking – moving at a brisk trot. America is casting off the skin of the Bush era and a new skin with a slightly – but not radically – different pattern is emerging. America needs both countries to be ‘on side’ but for widely differing (yet interlocking) reasons. India is an emerging regional superpower which America sees as a counterweight to a bullish China. Pakistan and Afghanistan are of crucial strategic importance to America and both have deep inherent instabilities as well as an assortment of wars and insurgencies being fought within their collective borders. India is currently concerned that American aid will be turned from ploughshare into sword. The US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, has moved swiftly to counteract Indian fears that the aid that is coming to Pakistan will be diverted into the hands of extremists or used to boost our military assets in such a way as to threaten India. Blake said … “The new focus in terms of our relationship with Pakistan is to dramatically increase economic assistance to Pakistan to help that country overcome some of its economic challenges and to extend the writ of the government to other parts of Pakistan. And all of those things should be very much in India’s interest as well.”
Source
Labels: Indo-Pak Relations, US Pakistan Relations
posted @ 10:53 AM,
0 Comments:
Post a Comment