{"id":32307,"date":"2018-10-29T13:30:31","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=32307"},"modified":"2018-10-29T13:30:31","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:00:31","slug":"money-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/money-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Money talks\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/editorial\/money-talks\/article22360932.ece\"><strong>Money talks<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pakistan is worried less by U.S. withdrawal of aid than the overall downslide in ties<\/p>\n<p><strong>US holds Pakistan accountable for terrorism<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That the U.S. will continue to withhold $255 million in\u00a0Foreign Military Financing to Pakistan\u00a0this year suggests it is prepared to downgrade its ties with Pakistan further in an effort to hold it to account on terrorism<\/p>\n<p><strong>Remarks against Pakistan\u2019s double policy<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley cited Pakistan\u2019s \u201cdouble game\u201d of cooperating with the U.S. and harbouring terrorists who attack its troops in Afghanistan<\/li>\n<li>Mr. Trump\u2019s own tweet, a day earlier, on January 1, was less temperate in its wording. He\u00a0accused Pakistan of \u201clies and deceit\u201d\u00a0and of treating the U.S. leadership as \u201cfools\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Pakistan\u2019s reaction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After a National Security Council meeting of top generals and ministers convened by Prime Minister ShahidKhaqanAbbasi, it issued a statement expressing \u201cdisappointment\u201d over the U.S. statements, and referring to Pakistan\u2019s record in fighting terrorism and providing support to the U.S. effort in Afghanistan<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Decision to hold back aid not unexpected<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One reason is that the U.S. decision to hold back the $255 million was not unexpected<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In May last year, the Trump administration had decided to cut the annual outlay for 2018 from $255 million to $100 million<\/li>\n<li>In August, it notified Congress it would withhold the current tranche due for 2016 as well, while a decision on 2017 was still pending<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>No major impact<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Second, while the overall downslide in ties with the U.S. will be a major worry for Pakistan, the cancellation of funds may not be that alarming. American assistance to Pakistan is at its lowest levels since 2001.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chinese alternative available to Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Third, Pakistan\u2019s confidence that it has an alternative in China has grown, with Beijing\u2019s pledge of more than $100 billion in loans for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor infrastructure, power projects, and so on<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Question<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Whether the U.S. will consider stronger measures, such as stopping all funding, sanctions, or cancelling Pakistan\u2019s \u2018major non-NATO ally\u2019 status?<\/p>\n<p><strong>India\u2019s view: a positive development<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From India\u2019s point of view, any attempt to hold Pakistan\u2019s feet to the fire on its support to terror groups is a positive development<\/p>\n<p><strong>US needs to follow through<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is particularly important that the U.S. follow through on its ultimatums in this respect.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Focus on terrorism affecting American troops only<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, all American statements so far focus on Pakistan\u2019s support to terror groups that threaten Afghanistan, and more particularly, the U.S. troops in Afghanistan<\/p>\n<p><strong>Action against groups targeting India is unlikely<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Therefore, action against the groups that threaten India is unlikely to be an immediate priority. New Delhi must also be mindful of the impact of a more fractured U.S.-Pakistan\u00a0relationship on regional security<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Above all, the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, like that between India and the U.S. and India and Pakistan, is a long-standing bilateral one. While welcoming all moves to address India\u2019s core concerns on terror, New Delhi must ensure it doesn\u2019t get ensnared or triangulated in the equation between Washington and Islamabad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Money talks\u00a0 Context Pakistan is worried less by U.S. withdrawal of aid than the overall downslide in ties US holds Pakistan accountable for terrorism That the U.S. will continue to withhold $255 million in\u00a0Foreign Military Financing to Pakistan\u00a0this year suggests it is prepared to downgrade its ties with Pakistan further in an effort to hold&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/money-talks\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Money talks\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704899523},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}