EXCLUSIVE: Relations Between US and Pakistan Suddenly Rocky Over Trump’s Latest Tweetstorm
International Review
The relations between the US and Pakistan, the Americans' old and pledged ally in Central Asia, are getting worse, no, not worse, but more complicated. It all started January 1, when the famous Twitter-diplomat, Donald Trump, wrote a post about the US helping Pakistan a lot and having allocated $ 33 billion to Islamabad in the past 15 years, but having been lied to in response. Then, the Pentagon reported that the military aid was to be suspended, and the Pakistani Defense Minister, Khurram Dastgir Khan, stated that they wouldn't transfer intelligence data to the US anymore. This includes transport corridors to Afghanistan, which Americans need the most from Pakistan.
The US and Pakistan concluded the Mutual Defense Agreement in 1954. It was also back then that financial support programs were launched, military advisors were appointed, and Pakistani officers went to study in the US. Islamabad received missile and nuclear technologies In return, the US places its military bases and reconnaissance centers in the country. It was from the Pakistani territory that the reconnaissance U2 planes took off, including Gary Powers, shot down over the USSR. Under President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the financial and military aid was suspended. But during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, it was through Pakistan that mujahideen were financed and trained. In the 1990s, Islamabad was punished again for nuclear weapons development. But after the 9/11 terrorist attack, the financing was only increased. Pakistan became the main ally in the new Afghan war if NATO isn't considered. Islamabad started actively buying the F-16 Fighting Falcon air-to-air missiles, maritime patrol aircraft, and many more. At the same time, both American and Pakistani officials recognized that some part of the money was spent with serious violations.
We'll talk with an expert about the peculiarities of the situation. Alexei Kupriyanov is in the International Review studio.
- Hello, Alexei.
- Hello.
- How painful do you think, will be those statements, from the Pakistani side, first of all, the response statements about suspending the intelligence exchange with the US? About stopping feeding the Pentagon and the CIA with intelligence data from their side.
Alexei Kupriyanov, the Primakov IMEMO member: It will get really serious if these statements are fulfilled.
- Do you think it's just shaking the air?
- We must understand that many statements are made grandstand, and let's take a look at the latest US sanctions. That is, Americans formally suspended all aid to Pakistan in the security sphere. At the same time, it was agreed upon in advance that this suspension can be lifted in cases of some programs and projects…
- Specific ones.
- Yes. The projects that are useful and profitable, well, not profitable but those connected to the US security, that are directly related to the US security. It's clear that almost anything can be included in this. This is, first of all, about transport corridors.
- Do Americans have any other means of delivering consumables and weapons to Afghanistan? Apart from Pakistan?
- No. The biggest American problem is following. Afghanistan is, in fact, if we look at the map, we'll see that Afghanistan doesn't have that many neighbors, which are Iran, Pakistan, China, and our Central Asian states. Mildly speaking, the US doesn't have good relations with Iran now.
- For a long time.
- Yes. It clearly won't work through the Wakhan Corridor.
- Yes, they're unlikely to help Americans.
- There's no infrastructure for this help. Some air corridor is the maximum of what they have. It's useless to talk about Central Asia.
- There was a logistics center in Ulyanovsk. But our relations with the US aren't brilliant either, let's say.
- Yes. Even if Pakistan doesn't close its airspace for the US... It can, in fact, close it formally, and the US can really ignore it. In this case, any delivery to Pakistan, any shell, will turn into a factory. One thing is delivering something to Karachi by cheap water transport and then bring it to Pakistan in trucks for nothing, I mean, to Afghanistan, sorry. Using a big and heavy plane is different.
Most of all cargo for the international coalition in Afghanistan is delivered through Pakistan. This includes food, fuel products, water, weapons, ammunition, and much more. First, the cargo arrives at the Pakistani port of Karachi in the Arabian Sea. Then, it's carried by trucks through two routes: the Northern route through the Khyber Pass and the Arham border post and the Southern route through Chaman, the city of the Pakistani Province of Balochistan. Both routes are very dangerous as they pass very close to the tribes' territory. This is the territory where Islamists hide.
The US can't hold legal military operations on the Pakistani territory and have to rely on official Islamabad, which doesn't want to bother Islamists much. The cargo is carried by the Pakistani and Afghan transport companies with local drivers and local guards, who usually run away when feeling danger. On December 7, 2008, alone, when a base in Peshawar was attacked, the Taliban movement burned 44 military trucks and 62 Hummer cars allocated to the Afghan army. Overnight into October 4, 2010, the Taliban movement group attacked the NATO convoy near Islamabad. As a result, 20 oil road-tankers were destroyed, allocated to the coalition in Afghanistan.
International Review