News Desk |
The Foreign Office on Thursday, 3rd January welcomed US President Donald Trump’s remarks on ties with Pakistan and said the government was keenly waiting for the engagement at the highest level. Speaking at the weekly press brief, Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Dr. Faisal said, “We look forward to positive engagement with the US at the leadership level…
Earlier, U.S President Trump had said that he was looking forward to meeting the new leadership of Pakistan soon, but it was leveled with a touch of criticism to Islamabad for harboring “terrorists” once again. He was talking about congress’s unwillingness to let him build a $5 billion wall saying that the U.S happily pays billions to foreign countries even though they do nothing in return, but shows reluctance when it’s about the U.S itself.
Prime Minister Khan’s tweet had come after Donald Trump made bitter statements against Pakistan in a TV program, accusing the country of harboring terrorists and subsequently having shut down the “billions of dollars” in aid.
“We want to have a great relationship with Pakistan, but they house the enemy, they take care of the enemy,” he said. “We just can’t do that. So, I look forward to meeting with the folks from — and the new leadership in Pakistan, we’ll be doing that in the not-too-distant future. I ended the 1.3 billion we paid, it’s like water, and we just do it,” Mr. Trump announced during his first meeting with the cabinet members this year.
President Trump has continuously been critical to Pakistan for harboring terrorists– which in a way is consistent for many years irrespective of who is in the oval office. In November 2018, President Trump had a twitter spat with Prime Minister Imran Khan where the latter defended baseless allegations and asked the former to not seek the refuge of the defeat in Afghanistan in this way.
Read more: Trump ‘looks forward to’ meeting Imran Khan
Prime Minister Khan’s tweet had come after Donald Trump made bitter statements against Pakistan in a TV program, accusing the country of harboring terrorists and subsequently having shut down the “billions of dollars” in aid.
Donald Trump, who had initially sidelined Pakistan in his “New South Asia Policy” announced in November 2017, eventually wrote a letter to Prime Minister Khan a few weeks back, seeking Pakistan’s assistance in bringing the Afghan Taliban to the table talks.
President Trump’s continuously shifting stance towards Pakistan and especially the letter to Prime Minister Khan has instilled the impression that Pakistan is a vital ally for the US and the antagonism exhibited by the US President at times is an internal political requirement.
Read more: President Trump wished to meet new Pakistani leadership in not-too-distant future
In the whole bitter-sweet exchange over the past few months, analysts have drawn the conclusion that the US does not wish to cut ties with Pakistan but is pressured by a proactive Indian lobby to strike at times. While this analysis may have missing links, it does make up for a logical explanation of the US President’s incoherence at following a stance.