US defence secretary likely to visit Pakistan later this month

Mark Esper's visit will be part of ongoing regular exchanges, focusing mainly on Afghan peace process

ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper is expected to visit Pakistan later this month, as relations between Islamabad and Washington have seen significant improvement: thanks to Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace process.

There is no official confirmation yet either from Pakistan or the US of the visit, sources, however, confirmed that the secretary’s visit is planned in the third week of March.

The visit will be part of the ongoing regular exchanges between the two countries, focusing on the Afghan peace process, regional situation and bilateral ties.

Esper will have a full range of activities in Islamabad where he is expected to meet both the civil and military leadership.

The sources familiar with the agenda said Afghanistan would certainly dominate the discussions as the process entered a crucial phase following the recent deal signed between the US and the Afghan Taliban in Doha.

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The deal has envisaged a host of measures -- including release of thousands of prisoners by both sides of the conflict, intra-Afghan dialogue and firm guarantees by the Taliban to not allow the Afghan soil to be used by terrorist groups.

The next critical phase is the intra-Afghan dialogue, which was supposed to take place on March 10 but will certainly be delayed after President Ashraf Ghani refused to release prisoners.

However, Ghani, after taking oath for his next term in the controversial presidential elections, now indicated that his administration would abide by the US-Taliban deal related to the prisoners exchange.

There were reports of talks between the Taliban and Afghan officials in Doha to sort out details of the prisoners swap.

The Taliban have made it clear that they would not enter into the intra-Afghan dialogue unless their 5,000 colleagues were freed.

In addition Afghanistan, the visit of the US defense secretary would provide opportunity to both the sides to discuss security cooperation.

After taking charge of the White House, President Trump had suspended security assistance to Pakistan, blaming Islamabad for deceiving the US in the fight against terrorism. His administration even halted the military training programme for Pakistani military officials.

The military training programme, nevertheless, has recently been restored by the US, something that is seen as acknowledgement of Pakistan’s positive role in the Afghan peace efforts.

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It is, however, not clear if the Trump administration would restore the security assistance, particularly the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) that it withheld for penalising Pakistan for not doing enough in the fight against terrorism.

Pakistani officials have not spoken much about the security assistance or CSF publically as their emphasise has been shifted to trade and commercial ties with the US.

The US commerce secretary was in Pakistan recently and held crucial meetings with his Pakistani interlocutors to explore where the US could help the country in reviving the economy.

Senator Lindsy Graham, the influential Republican politician, has been a staunch advocate of having Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Pakistan in return for its assistance to ensure honourable exit for the US from Afghanistan.

Lindsy is considered close to President Trump and is believed to have played an instrumental role in opening direct channel of communication between the Pakistani leadership and the White House.

It was because of increased interaction at the highest level that the two countries have seen considerable decrease in trust deficit.

President Trump and Prime Minister Imran Khan met thrice -- first in July at the White House, then on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York in September and more recently on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January -- in a short span of six months.

The visit of the defense secretary is continuation of that ongoing engagements between the two countries.