Pakistan premier's US visit resets relations

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's maiden visit to the U.S. has turned a new page in otherwise fraught relations between the two allies with a "greater understanding" on reconciliation in war-infested Afghanistan and President Donald Trump's offer to mediate in the lingering Kashmir dispute, say local analysts.

They warn, however, that the implementation of the understanding between the two leaders will be no walk in the park.

Accompanied by Pakistan’s powerful army chief and other senior military leadership, Khan had a face-to-face meeting with Trump at the White House during his three-day visit, apart from meeting U.S. lawmakers and investors.

According to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was also part of Khan's entourage, Trump accepted an invitation extended by the premier to visit Pakistan.

The cricketer-turned-politician also drew thousands of Pakistani-Americans to Washington's Capital One Arena, where his speech focused on criticizing his jailed political rivals, mainly three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"Mere visits do not turn out to be game-changers. And in case of Pakistan-U.S. relations, which are over 70 years old with ups and downs, we must not look for that," Shamshad Ahmad Khan, a former foreign secretary, told Anadolu Agency.

"But still, I view this visit as a great success as relations between the two sides were tense until a few months back," said Khan, who served as the foreign secretary from 1997 to 2000, citing Trump's repeated accusations against Pakistan for allegedly playing a "double game" in Afghanistan, and suspension of $300 million in military aid in September last year.

He gave credit to Trump, "who took the driving seat" and set the tone despite reluctance from the U.S. establishment.

"The U.S. establishment was not very keen or in a hurry for a change in Washington's attitude. But Trump knows that he has to go to the elections and to do something cogent vis-a-vis his manifesto in which he had promised to pull the U.S. out of wars," Khan said.

Ali Sarwar Naqvi, a former ambassador, agreed with Khan, saying the visit has gone "exceedingly well".

"This (visit) marks a positive turn in the Pak-U.S. relationship after a long period of strain," Naqvi told Anadolu Agency, referring to a lingering clash of interests between Washington and Islamabad in Afghanistan.

- Kashmir mediation

Trump’s mediation offer made headlines across the globe, particularly in Pakistani and Indian media, which highlighted the U.S. president’s assertion that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had asked him to mediate on Kashmir. New Delhi, however, rejected Trump’s claim.

Khan, who was the architect of a composite dialogue between Pakistan and India in the late 1990s, did not view Trump's mediation offer as something new.

"The U.S. has offered to mediate between Islamabad and New Delhi several times in the past decades but it could not be materialized due to the continuous refusal of India," he said, recalling former U.S. President Barrack Obama, who in his election manifesto had also promised to work to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

Agreeing with Khan, Naqvi, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Jordan, Belgium and Austria from 1970 to 2006, traced the U.S. mediation offer on Kashmir back to the era of slain President John F. Kennedy.

Both Naqvi and Khan, however, acknowledged that a mere mediation offer would not work.

Khan feared that any untoward incidents like the 2008 deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India in which more than 150 people were killed might erase the word ‘Kashmir’ from Trump’s dictionary for a long period as had happened during Obama’s regime.

“Whether it’s Clinton or Obama, whenever they offered mediation, something deadly and engineered occurred, whether it’s the Mumbai attacks or killings of Sikhs in occupied Kashmir (before Clinton’s visit to Pakistan in February 2000)," he contended.

Naqvi said: “This is true that Washington cannot twist New Delhi’s arm to accept the mediation offer. Therefore, it’s valid to question the practicality of Trump’s offer."

“But one thing is for sure: that the emphasis on Kashmir during the Trump-Khan meeting has brought the issue under the international spotlight," he maintained.

- Interests in Afghanistan

Abdul Khalique Ali, a Karachi-based political analyst, said the two sides had narrowed their differences on the Afghanistan issue, mainly regarding India’s role in the reconciliation process and the future setup.

“There is no longer a major clash of interests between the two sides in Afghanistan," Ali said. “Both countries have not only agreed on a non-military solution to the conflict, but Washington in a practical manner has accepted Islamabad’s demand for no Indian role in Afghanistan except for a developmental nature."

He said Pakistan had already done a lot for the U.S. by persuading the Taliban to enter direct talks with Washington, a move that has helped mend the icy relations between the two allies in the so-called war against terrorism.

"But we should not overestimate the development as the U.S. is still looking at us [Pakistan] through the prism of Afghanistan. Washington desperately needs Islamabad to help in giving a safe exit from Afghanistan."

Khan, the former foreign secretary, shared a similar view.

“There is a much better understanding between the two sides on the Afghanistan crisis. I see the will from both sides to resolve this longstanding conflict."

Seven rounds of direct talks with the Taliban, he said, had become possible just because of Pakistan.

“No other country could have done that."

Naqvi said: “America has come around to Pakistan’s stance vis-à-vis a solution to the Afghan conflict, which is non-military.”

He brushed aside a popular notion with regard to a Washington-backed Indian role in the war-stricken country, contending that former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis personally told him that his country wanted a developmental role from India in Afghanistan rather than a political one.