Resetting ties with US

FM Bilawal is apt as he says the relationship is broad-based and the synergies are in a positive direction

There is a new reset in Pakistan-US relations. Washington’s withdrawal from Southwest Asia and its disengagement from the region have led to new fissures. The resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan and the fact that non-state actors are regrouping have inadvertently created a space for collaboration between Pakistan and the US. This is where the new circumference is being studied as both the countries are eager to broaden their engagement in a positive direction by critically addressing counter-terrorism measures as well as geopolitics in the new era. Thus, Foreign Minister Bilawal Zardari is apt as he says the relationship is broad-based and the synergies are in a positive direction.

The foreign minister, while talking to a media house in New York, made some pertinent points as he said that Pakistan’s bilateral intensity with the US and China is not for a competition, and it is “absolutely possible” to engage both in a cordial and constructive manner. This is Islamabad’s epoch-making approach wherein it wants to shun the impression that it is part of camp politics. While Pakistan’s spin towards Beijing is more strategic in essence, it has never undermined its allied-ally relationship with the US. That is why Bilawal underscored the necessity of interacting with the US in the spheres of climate change, health and empowering the women strata, eliciting rich experiences from the lone superpower.

While standing fast with the US, the foreign minister didn’t mince words as he cleared the air by saying that Pakistan is not ‘pursuing’ any discounted energy from Russia. This aspect has been a lynchpin in ties and was the bone of contention in the rupture of ties with the ousted government of Imran Khan. Though Bilawal’s stance on energy procurement with Moscow is in contradiction with his own colleagues in the Cabinet, the leap ahead that the young foreign minister has made all these months in galvanising relations with the State Department is laudable. The exit of Pakistan from FATF grey list and the reengagement in Afghanistan are an outcome of the new realisation in both the capitals.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2022.

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