Pakistan possesses an advantage in South Asia given its geo-strategic location and no matter how hard different lobbies working against Pakistan try, it just gets impossible to ignore Pakistan.
We’ve seen over the years that the USA has been quite unfair with Pakistan and took a hardline in some instances. Many analysts predicted Joe Biden’s victory during US elections and they were observing this as a change in the policy of the United States in South-Asia.
Joe Biden during his tenure as Vice-President of the USA has worked with the Pakistani government on many instances and he has a good working relationship along with a good understanding of this region.
Read more: US President Biden has nominated a Pakistani-American to his economic team
Let’s be clear on one thing, it won’t just be Joe Biden’s decision on how to go along with Pakistan as it will have a great impact on US establishment and lobbies working in the US. Also, it would be irresponsible if we rule out the number of Indians working under the Biden Administration.
Surrounded by Indian lobby
People who argue that the US President will have more say and he will write off the pressure of the US establishment by Indian and Israel lobby and go out of the way to support Pakistan or even be fair, are totally wrong.
If we look at Trump’s tenure, despite PM Imran Khan having good relations with him as they have met several times and exchanged phone calls, Trump failed to restart US Military Aid to Pakistan which was around 2.6 Billion Dollars.
Read more: US Aid to Pakistan reduced by $440 Million
Despite sharing good relations during Trump’s tenure, Imran Khan was still unable to make effective policy on the Kashmir issue. Trump was not allowed to take any stance as he was surrounded by lobbyists to support India freely and let them be barbaric in Kashmir.
This proves the argument that Biden won’t be able to remain fair to Pakistan even if he wants to and let’s get this on record, Pakistan has done no harm to the USA, in fact, it supported the USA in the war against terror.
Read more: How Pakistan is still part of America’s war on terror
Pakistan’s economy took a damaging punch because of entering the US war against terror and is still suffering the aftershocks of that punch. Pakistan lost many soldiers, police officers, politicians, and civilians in this war and despite the loyalty, the US remained unfair to Pakistan just for its own goals in this region.
Pakistan’s role in the Afghan issue
The US is going to withdraw military troops from Afghanistan and despite not taking Pakistan under confidence before announcing it, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Smith mentioned the importance of Pakistan in its geostrategic positioning and role in the Afghan Peace Process.
Pakistan continued to play its part to get the US and Taliban on one page to negotiate. It was all happening on the wishes of the US.
Read more: Pakistan remains determined to bring peace in Afghanistan: FM Queshi
Now what would be the outcome of this negotiation and how this will be in this region especially after the US military withdrawal of Afghanistan is something we can’t control or predict but despite that Pakistan has played its part to mediate between the two parties.
Pakistan deserves all the credit for making this happen and what we have witnessed is an effort to keep Pakistan out of this process now.
The Afghan peace process and US military withdrawal will have a large scale impact on Pak-US relations. It can be either good or bad.
Read more: Delayed US withdrawal necessary for peace in Afghanistan
Controlling China’s power in the region
It’s not a secret that the US wants to put China in check and stop its emergence as a World Super Power. The US supports India and backs it in every manner in order to stop China.
India itself has no personal or historical issues with China that can’t be dealt with. The Ladakh face-off between China and India-which got the attention of international media outlets-not even a single soldier got damaged from either side, eventually, it was solved with no hype and news in world media.
Read more: Chinese troops celebrate Ladakh triumph by playing Punjabi songs on loudspeakers: report
This shows that whole Indian aggression towards China is on the wishes of the US and not India. With India getting support from the US, Pakistan needs a bigger country for trade and economic activities hence Pakistan sees China as its future.
Pakistan finds it impossible to leave China in order to join the US because of their massive support to India. Previous US government under Trump even said the CPEC project, which is really important for Pakistan’s trade, economy, wealth creation, and jobs as a ‘Debt Trap for Pakistan’.
Read more: Why China’s BRI not a Debt Trap
So far, Pakistan is safe from getting blacklisted because of China. Pakistan has been working on FATF rulings and made massive differences.
Pakistan worked hard to get out of the FATF grey list and despite a lot of efforts and agreeing on terms, Pakistan is still getting threatened to be blacklisted.
Read more: Countering FATF Prejudice against Pakistan: The Acrimonious Fact
It is really important for Joe Biden and his administration to balance out things in South Asia.
It’s not possible to go ahead by putting all your weight on one side. It will create instability in South Asia. Lack of balance in the region can be damaging for the future especially considering the importance of Pakistan in Afghanistan.
Fahad Qureshi is an MPhil scholar, analyst, and journalist. He has expertise in national and international politics. The writer can be reached at thefahadqureshi@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.