US-Pakistan ties: Moving in the right direction

As the region awaits another phase of uncertainty with the scheduled US drawdown from Afghanistan later this year, it is heartening to see the US and Pakistan moving in the right direction. After a hiatus of three years, they have resumed their revitalised Strategic Dialogue in Washington earlier this week, seeking not only stabilisation of their bilateral relations but also exploring how to work together in stabilising this turbulent region amid mutual concerns over the post-2014 Afghan scenario.

This dialogue at the foreign ministers’ level was started in 2010 with three quarterly sessions held in quick succession within the same year, but then the process was interrupted by a succession of events and bilateral irritants, including the 2011 Abbottabad operation. Now the resumed session in Washington took place in the aftermath of a high-profile visit to Washington by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last October, and earlier, a visit to Islamabad by Secretary of State John Kerry in August 2013. Both visits provided a welcome opportunity to the two sides to prepare the ground for recovering the lost momentum.

The joint statement issued in Washington at the end of the Strategic Dialogue reaffirms the two countries’ commitment “to strengthen the bilateral relationship and advance their shared interest in a stable, secure, and prosperous Pakistan and region”. They also reviewed the sectoral progress in the Strategic Dialogue’s five designated areas dealing with energy, security, non-proliferation, defence, counterterrorism, as well as economic and commercial matters.

While expressing satisfaction over the groundbreaking efforts the two sides have made in these working groups, they expressed their conviction that an enduring US-Pakistan partnership is vital to regional and international security, and recognised their shared interest in Pakistan’s economic growth, increased trade, regional stability, and mutually determined measures to counter extremism and terrorism. Beyond these salutary mutual expressions and reaffirmations, the joint statement mostly covered what happened in the first three working group meetings convened in November last year.

The two sides underscored the importance of intensifying efforts to facilitate regional energy, connectivity and continuing to upgrade Pakistan’s transmission infrastructure. In this context, Secretary Kerry highlighted that US assistance in the energy sector has added over 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power to Pakistan’s national grid, helping provide power to over 16 million Pakistanis. Pakistan welcomed the recent US commitment of $15 million in support of the Central Asia-South Asia electricity transmission project that will help create a regional energy grid to link Central and South Asia for the first time.

In addition, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the development finance institution of the US government, is currently working on financing up to 300MW of wind power generation projects that will deploy US-based investment in Pakistan. These are small but positive signs of gradually growing people-specific substance in their bilateral relationship. With the coming of the new government in Islamabad, both countries seem to be making a determined effort towards putting this relationship on more solid foundations of mutual benefit and cooperation.

In the field of security, there is a tremendous scope for developing a strong relationship taking into account each other’s legitimate security concerns. The Washington meeting thus reaffirmed their commitment to further advancing the strong partnership between the two countries through the Strategic Dialogue and stressed the importance of a US-Pakistan partnership built on a foundation of mutual interest and respect. They also renewed their common resolve to promote peace, stability and transparency throughout the region and to eliminate the threats posed by extremism and terrorism.

Both sides acknowledged that a peaceful, stable, independent, and united Afghanistan is in the interest of the region’s stability and affirmed “the important role of countries in the region in supporting Afghanistan’s progress toward stability and prosperity”. Both sides emphasised their support for a policy of non-interference in Afghanistan by all countries of the region and also reaffirmed that Afghan-led peace and reconciliation is the surest way to end violence and ensure lasting stability of Afghanistan and the region. The US recognised the importance of Pakistan’s role and expressed its appreciation for the concrete efforts that Pakistan is making to this effect.

All said and done, the Strategic Dialogue Ministerial this time, as perhaps also in the earlier sessions, did not go beyond the plenary statements by the leaders of the two delegations or restating what has already been stated in their earlier high-level meetings, including the working group meetings. The problem is that despite all the cliche-laden rhetoric on both sides, this relationship, throughout its existence, has lacked continuity, a larger conceptual framework and a shared vision beyond each side’s ‘narrowly based and vaguely defined’ issue-specific priorities.

It has never had any conflict of interest; yet it also remains without genuine mutuality of interests. The only mutuality in this hinge has been one of expediency, with each side always aiming at different goals and objectives to be derived from their relationship Besides a persistent trust deficit, in recent years, the two countries have also had no control over the growing list of irritants, some of which could have easily been avoided if both sides were guided by the concept of mutuality in their relationship. The US-Pakistan relationship is not all about any particular incident or an individual or even any isolated irritant.

Let us be honest. The problem is not this relationship. The problem is its poor and short-sighted management on both sides. It is time to correct this approach. In doing so, one thing must be kept in mind. Because of their respective geopolitical interests, both countries need each other. Both realise the need to re-fix their troubled relationship and to remove each other’s concerns. This requires a deeper ‘strategic partnership’ based on their long-term common geopolitical objectives and interests. It is not enough just to remain in a cliche-ridden declaratory mode with no movement towards a real strategic partnership that both sides always claim to be aiming at.

The strategic dialogue itself is not the end in itself. It is only a means towards the end. For Pakistan, a realistic expectation from this dialogue has always been its transformation into a wider enduring ‘strategic partnership’ with clearly defined result-based sectoral goalposts and priorities. Pakistan deserves non-discriminatory treatment on a par with India on the question of nuclear cooperation. While continuing to refine the goals and benchmarks to measure their success, the two sides must also take concrete steps needed to build the desired strategic partnership.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd,   2014.

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