Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran khan’s visit to USA from 21st to 23rd July 2019 was quite strange and yielded some magical results.
Pakistan was treated as a friend of America despite of playing the villain for quite some time now. The hatred against Pakistan disappeared. Pakistan a Muslim Country; Pakistan is a friend of China and Pakistan is an atomic Power. These three were the causes of hatred which were not an issue during this time. Bernard Levis, Samuel Huntington theory did not work though American Donald Trump is considered to be the follower of the theory. The blame of terrorism also was not repeated. Talk of isolation of Pakistan in the west suddenly stopped. Was it magic or it was the necessity of USA or Pakistan’s Geopolitical Balancing Act. India did not respond to America’s command on S-400 Defense system issue to buy from Russia. India also attended a secret meeting of China, Russia and India about trade in local currency. So America would like to give a bit of mind to India right giving Pakistan importance; a tactical move. Imran khan also demonstrated a power show.
It was a Sunday night and Washington’s large Capital One Arena was packed. But it wasn’t packed for basketball or a music concert; it was 20,000 people who came to listen to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. It was at this moment when on a cultural level, decades of mistrust and bad blood between Pakistan and the United States evaporated. Prior to the formation of Imran Khan’s government, Pakistani Prime Ministers were the kinds of people who could only fill large public squares at home by mobilizing a network of bribery and patronage. Such politicians could not attract any great attention abroad in places where the system of feudal political patronage dose not exist. This worked very well. Donald Trump would like to win the election 2020 at any cost.
He would like to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan while appearing to emerge victorious and Pakistan could help him at home and in Afghanistan in the election campaign. Therefore, Pakistani-American relations have notably improved since Prime Minister Khan entered office last August, and Trump doesn’t blame his predecessors for supposedly not doing all they previously could in bringing peace to Afghanistan because “they were dealing with the wrong President”. Pakistan is now helping to “extricate” the US from Afghanistan and “saving millions of lives”.
Trump ambitiously wants to increase Pakistani-American trade by 10-20x its current level after heaping nothing but praise on its people and economic potential, strongly suggesting that Pakistan could replace India as the US’ preferred economic partner in South Asia if New Delhi continues to play “hard ball” on trade. Trump announced that he’d “love to go to Pakistan at the right time”, which could even be as early as the end of this year if he travels to India in November or December like is reportedly being explored and then pays a visit to its neighbor, especially if there’s a big breakthrough in the Afghan peace process around that time.
Trump revealed that Modi supposedly requested his diplomatic intervention in mediating the Kashmir Conflict with Pakistan, something that New Delhi has since denied after it’s become a raging domestic political scandal at home. Trump’s quip that “Pakistan never lies” takes on a newfound significance. This is good for Pakistan and Pakistan should grip this time and situation and take benefit instead simply rejoicing
