Trump and Pakistan found common ground

Telephonic conversation between Donald Trump and PM Nawaz Sharif discovered linkages with ground realities in region

Despite controversy, this week’s telephonic conversation between US President-elect Donald Trump and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif discovered linkages with ground realities in the region.

The conversation and its flowery language as released by the PM office were stunning for international media. The wording of Trump’s tete-a-tete was either derided or the US president-elect was dubbed ignorant of the complex situation in the region. In Pakistan, the controversy remains regarding the press release that was issued in Islamabad without professional input. In Washington, Trump is facing almost similar criticism for to not consulting officials before talking to a foreign leader.

Whatsoever, today Trump is president-elect after a long, gruelling campaign and politicking in an educated American society and was being surrounded by senior politicians of Republican Party.

Regardless of the controversy surrounding the conversation, what could be seen as positive is that Trump has demonstrated sensitivity to address the outstanding issue of Pakistan for the second time and, undeniably, the country has long-standing issues with India.

The reason is that the US has associated interests with Pakistan, India, China and Afghanistan. And the truth is that Washington is planning to readjust its ties with the regional countries. Also, Trump cannot ignore Pakistan in the region for several reasons.

Firstly, the stabilisation of the region without involving Pakistan is difficult and there’s no doubt that managing relations between Pakistan and India, the two rival nuclear powers in South Asia, are extremely important. Washington needs strong ties with the bigger market, which is India, for trade and balancing the region as a part of its ‘Pivot to Asia’ policy. Both Pakistan and America aspire for stabilisation in Afghanistan for their own interests.

Secondly, Pakistan is important for the US as a trade route as well. The US even has options to become partners in the regional connectivity. This is a consistent policy of Washington to interconnect South Asia and Central Asia while keeping Afghanistan and Pakistan at the centre. In her visit to India in July, 2011, the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged India to use its economic power to boost commerce across Central Asia, including Afghanistan and arch-rival Pakistan. Pakistan is working hard to have access to Central Asia as well. Islamabad is not thinking of interconnectivity with South Asia just because of its enmity with India. If the hurdle is removed, Pakistan would be more than happy to interconnect South Asia with Central Asia.

Thirdly, since long, the US considers the damaging ties between the South Asian nuclear neighbours as dangerous.

Moreover, America has planned projects like the New Silk Road — that is being also supported by China, which has launched a number of projects in the region under the One Belt One Road initiative. Keeping Washington’s future plans in mind, the dominant thinking in the US is to achieve stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, both in security and economic terms. For this, addressing the regional issues is a prerequisite.

America views the CPEC as an opportunity as well. Though Washington is concerned about the future profile of China but at the same time it considers the corridor and China’s involvement in the region as a stabilising factor. The US could benefit itself and the region from the CPEC by launching a partnership with Pakistan and China. Though Donald Trump has certain reservations over business with China, nevertheless, Washington and Beijing have a long-standing history of managing ties effectively.

The CPEC and the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Programme could be utilised for realising the US dream of inter-connecting Central Asia and South Asia. CAREC is planned to be extended from Central Asia via Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India to South Asia. Is this possible without resolving issues between India and Pakistan, the gateway between Central Asia and South Asia? Being a businessman, Trump knows the importance of peace and stability for the sake of trade and growth.

The US wishes to have strong trade ties in the region — and it would not be fruitful if the Afghanistan-Pakistan region remains unstable — especially if India would be in clash with the latter. The mistrusts between India and Pakistan could damage the US interests in Afghanistan and Central Asia too.

These are the grounds that attract Trump toward resolution of the issues between Pakistan and India. The two countries and stabilisation in the region are important for the US.

What is important to note is that Pakistan aspires for talks with India for revamping ties — whatever has even after been occurring at the Line of Control lately. So this time Islamabad and the Washington are on same page. Recently, Pakistan tried to attract world’s attention toward its issues with India especially Kashmir. It is clear that India has delayed resumption of dialogue with Islamabad for one reason or the other.

Hence, no one should be surprised when the US president-elect praises Pakistan, in a sense that it is a positive diplomatic gesture though not official. The words of praise for Pakistan, Pakistanis and Nawaz Sharif were apparently used for “do-good, well thought of” gestures. Trump’s repeated support for addressing the outstanding issues of Pakistan in the region is not hollow as a whole.

At this critical juncture, when Trump is positive and shares many things with Pakistan in his approach to the region, the visit of the Prime Minister’s special assistant for foreign affairs, Tariq Fatemi to the US is a welcome step.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2016.

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