In the wake of Pakistan’s help toward initiating an Afghan peace process, President Donald Trump has said his administration wants to have a great relationship with the South Asian country and looks forward to meeting with its new Pakistani leadership.
At the same time, Trump renewed his allegation that Pakistan houses Afghan militants fighting the U.S. forces in Afghanistan cited it as the reason for his administration’s ending assistance for Pakistan.
“We want to have a great relationship with Pakistan, but they house the enemy. They take care of the enemy. We just can’t do that,” the U.S. president said, while speaking at his first cabinet meeting of 2019, where he outlined some of his priorities for the new year.
“So, I look forward to meeting with the new leadership in Pakistan. We will be doing that in the not too distant future. But I ended USD 1.3 billion that we paid,” he added, while underscoring his administration’s approach to cutting off aid for countries that do not reciprocate U.S. support.
Trump also confirmed that the U.S. is talking to the Taliban as part of efforts to stabilize Afghanistan through an Afghan peace process.
The U.S. president’s comments on Pakistan reflect a change in tone from his earlier rhetoric which held Islamabad responsible for Afghan failure and essential saw it as doing nothing despite the U.S. sending billions of dollars in assistance to the country.
Trump began 2018 with a string of allegations against Pakistan and now in the first week of the new year, his comments reflects a recognition of the fact that Pakistan’s help is critical to establishing Afghan peace.
Trump wrote a letter last year to new Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan – who came to power after a victory in July 2018 elections – and sought Islamabad’s help on kick-starting the Afghan peace process.
Since then, the Trump Administration has acknowledged Islamabad’s help in pushing the Taliban to negotiations towards a peace process as Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Special Envoy, has been visiting the region to end the 18-year-old conflict through Afghan peace process.
Islamabad has rejected allegations that it gives refuge to Afghan Taliban with Imran Khan responding to Trump’s tweets with reminders on Pakistan’s sacrifices and contributions in the fight against terror since it allied with the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11 terror attacks.
In his remarks at the cabinet meeting, Trump defended his decision to withdraw American troops from Syria, making a case for America’s international partners stepping up to share the burden of involvement in faraway lands.
However, the U.S. president did not specifically address the question of a widely reported move about a possible draw down of half of the 14,000 American troops currently deployed in landlocked Afghanistan, a sanctuary for al-Qaeda perpetrators of 9/11 terrorist attacks. In December 2018, the White House denied the president had made any decision on reducing U.S. troops presence in Afghanistan.
Trump also criticized the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan as not being effective enough.
In his remarks on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, Trump argued that other countries have a responsibility to be in the fight for the country, where the Taliban are said to be in control of half of the territory, and where the ISIS and the Taliban militancy threaten to roll back socioeconomic gains achieved since the U.S. invasion of the country in late 2001.
He particularly mentioned India, Russia and Pakistan that should be doing more in the fight for Afghanistan’s stability.
He suggested that “the reason Russia was in Afghanistan (in the 1980s before the Soviet Union’s disintegration) was because terrorists were going into Russia.”
“They were right to be there,” he said in a statement, likely to draw criticism since Washington has always seen the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan as occupation of the country under thee Soviet policy of expansionism.
Trump said he has had a great relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi but appeared to mock Modi’s dwelling too much on claims that New Delhi funded a library in Afghanistan.
Modi has been “constantly telling me he built a library in Afghanistan,” Trump said.
“You know what that is? That’s like five hours of what we spend,” he said.
“And we’re supposed to say, ‘Oh, thank you for the library.’ I don’t know who’s using it in Afghanistan,” Trump wondered.
South Asia watchers say Afghanistan is likely to remain on top of the Trump Administration’s efforts as the president wants to end the conflict through a negotiated settlement and bring back American troops.
