United States has cut down both military and economic aid to Pakistan in the recent years, reflecting the mounting frustration among a growing number of officials with the nuclear-armed country's support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
"We're seeing a very definitive and very sharp reorienting of US policy in South Asia away from Afghanistan-Pakistan and more towards India," said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert with the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington think-tank.
Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, Aizaz Chaudhry has said that indiscriminate action was taken against all the extremist outfits in Pakistan, including the Haqqani Network, but the United States did not acknowledge Pakistan’s efforts. Pakistan has complained to the United States against its indifference to Islamabad and halting of aid money.
American civilian and military aid to Pakistan, once the third-largest recipient of US foreign assistance, is expected to total less than $1 billion in 2016, down from more than $3.5 billion, according to US government data. The decrease comes amid budget constraints and shifting global priorities for the United States, including fighting Islamic State militants, a resurgent Russia and an increasingly assertive China.
In March, Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he would seek to bar $430 million in US funding for Islamabad's purchase of $700 million of Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 fighter jets.
Earlier, secretary of defense Ash Carter refused to authorize $300 million in military reimbursements to Pakistan, citing the limited gains that the country has made in fighting the militant Haqqani network, which is based in the country's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
"Congress is no longer willing to fund a state that supports the Afghan Taliban, which is killing American soldiers," said Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution expert and former CIA officer who headed Obama's first Afghanistan policy review.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan were also tested in May when a US drone strike killed Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour on Pakistani soil. There has been growing resistance in the US Congress on sending money to Pakistan.
The US’s tilt toward India, Pakistan's arch-foe, is likely to continue and the funding to Pakistan may go down further. Earlier this year, India and the United States has agreed in principle to share military logistics, as both sides seek to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China.
By Premji
