Reading between the lines of Biden’s letter to Pakistan

The US wants to revitalise security cooperation with Pakistan

Within less than a month into office, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has received a letter from President Joe Biden, an ‘honour’ that his predecessor, the now incarcerated Imran Khan, was consistently denied.

Biden’s letter to Sharif was delivered on the heels of a US Congressional hearing on the electoral process in Pakistan. This letter has caused disappointment for Pakistani Americans who had been hectically lobbying for IK’s release and calling on US policymakers to pressure Pakistani establishment to address electoral irregularities.

A letter is less friendly than a phone call between the leaders of two countries. Still, the fact that Pakistan’s weak coalition government received a letter from the ‘leader of the free world’ himself is a sign of America’s desire to rekindle bilateral ties.

Biden’s brief letter, which is under 150 words, does not congratulate Sharif for becoming the PM. It instead alludes to US commitment to working with Pakistan to protect human rights and promote progress. It highlights US willingness to support health security, economic growth, education and climate resilience via sustainable agriculture and water management projects. It is difficult to get into a more detailed discussion of the efficacy of US-supported development interventions in Pakistan here. However, it is relevant to notice how the letter emphasises the need for security collaboration by euphemistically stating how the “enduring partnership between our nations remains critical to ensuring the security of our people”. Hence, once again, security is the compelling imperative underlying US desire to reinvigorate its relations with Pakistan.

The US and Pakistan have a long and tumultuous history of cooperating on security issues. Pakistan got a lot of military aid to join Cold War alliances soon after independence. Then the Zia regime benefitted from American and Saudi largess to help create ‘holy warriors’ to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan. After 9/11, Gen Musharraf became a non-NATO ally for the American-led ‘global war on terror’ in Afghanistan.

American obliviousness to the Karzai and Ghani governments’ acrimony towards Pakistan, and their close ties with India, compounded Pakistani reluctance to sever links with the Taliban. The unilateral American raid to kill Bin Laden on Pakistani soil worsened the mutual trust deficit. Yet, Pakistan did manage to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, enabling a ‘face saving’ exist from the longest foreign occupation in American history. However, as the US-led NATO retreat from the country took place without securing an intra-Afghan power sharing formula, the Taliban swiftly took over the entire country.

The present security situation in Afghanistan remains a source of major concern for not only the US but also Pakistan. Fearing hardliner attrition to the IS, the Taliban have been reluctant to respect human rights, to sever links with Al Qaeda, or to even clamp down on cross-border insurgents.

Besides skirmishes with the Taliban over fencing of the Durrand Line, Pakistan has struck targets inside Afghanistan, and used contentious means including the return of Afghan refugees to exert pressure on the Taliban. In the summer of 2022, Pakistan apparently ceded airspace for a US drone strike which killed Al-Zawahiri.

The US now wants to boost its existing security cooperation with Pakistan, especially to contend with the IS, which has ramped up attacks not only within Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also struck further afield, in Turkey and Russia. The US could very well be next on the global jihadi outfit’s hit-list.

Pakistan can still facilitate American interactions with the Taliban to deal with the IS. Pakistan could also use US support to improve border management to ease travel for ordinary Afghans while deterring cross-border attacks on its own soil. Moreover, resuming ties with the US could unlock more loans from other international lenders, which would enable the feeble coalition government led by the Sharifs an external lifeline to stay in power for a while at least.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2024.

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