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A second US secretary of state has visited Pakistan in less than a year, but Mike Pompeo’s
visit has not yielded any immediate and outward sign of an improvement in ties.
After a dramatic aid cancellation to Pakistan by the US defence department just days ahead of
Mr Pompeo’s visit, perhaps the best that could have been hoped for is a set of meetings devoid of
public acrimony and rancour.
With Mr Pompeo scheduled to travel to India immediately after a short, hours-long stay in
Islamabad, the possibility of the inaugural 2+2 ministerial meeting taking aim at Pakistan was
also high. The joint statement following the meeting in New Delhi yesterday between the Indian
foreign and defence ministers and their US counterparts delivers an explicit and harsh rebuke
meant for Pakistan, likely delighting hawks in Delhi and Washington and further complicating
Pakistan’s ties with the latter.
Widening Divergences
Yet, where the US is wrongheaded in its approach, Pakistan would be mistaken to remain in
denial about elements of its counter-militancy, counterterrorism and counter-extremism
strategies. While significant gains are evident and anti-Pakistan networks have been vastly
degraded,
there is a militant and extremist infrastructure in the country that has remained largely
untouched.
The externally oriented networks ought to be dismantled for Pakistan’s own sake, there
being no rational policy or security reasons for the continued existence of such groups.
The Pakistani state has suggested in recent years that it would like to gradually move against
such groups, but whether through political mainstreaming or dismantlement, no coherent or
reasonable policy has been put forward yet. Pakistan should be completely terror-free for its own
sake.