AT the outset, it is important to recognise that the US has already chosen its strategic partner in South Asia: India. The US requires India’s cooperation in pursuit of its priority national security objective: strategic competition with China and containing the latter’s economic rise. The US might perceive Pakistan to be a hurdle in two respects: its close friendship with China and its mutually hostile ties with India. This bigger picture is not likely to change soon.
To complicate matters, perceptions about Pakistan in the US and the latter’s image in Pakistan have been deeply bruised by the US-led ‘war on terror’. Many Pakistanis believe that America dragged Pakistan into a war that was not ours; one which caused enormous human and financial losses to our country. There is a view that America befriends Pakistan only when it requires help to advance its security agenda. For its part, the US perceives Pakistan as a country that impeded its military victory in Afghanistan by providing sanctuaries to the Taliban. US officialdom also accused Pakistan of playing a double game.