Opinion Express View: India shouldn’t be worried by Pakistan-US ties

Before the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term in January 2025, successive US administrations, including Trump 1.0, had broadly followed a policy of deepening engagement with India to counter China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific, while maintaining distance from Pakistan, largely due to Islamabad’s support for terrorism and its diminished strategic value as America disengaged from Afghanistan. However, a series of recent diplomatic exchanges — Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir has made three official visits to Washington since June — suggest a renewed warmth in US-Pakistan ties. This shift has come at a time of setbacks in the India-US relationship, following Washington’s decision to impose a penalty tariff on India over the latter’s continued oil purchases from Russia. Against this backdrop, ahead of his meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described India-US ties as “deep, historic and important,” emphasising that Washington’s engagement with Islamabad does not come at the expense of its “relationship” and “friendship” with New Delhi. The statement highlights the distinctly different character of the US’s relationships with India and Pakistan.

Partnerships between the US and Pakistan, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, have had a weak foundation. They have largely been transactional (as seen during the Soviet-Afghan war and its aftermath). India-US ties, in contrast, are anchored in security, technology and energy cooperation, trade and market access, and a shared objective in curbing China’s influence. New Delhi’s emphasis, therefore, should be on rejuvenating its partnership with Washington, deepening ties with nations that can complement its growth and accelerate domestic reform.

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It would be naive to deny that Pakistan has strategic assets — geographical location, capacity for disruption, nuclear capability, and a population of 250 million — that make it enticing to many countries such as the US, China, and, as seen recently, Saudi Arabia. It is also unrealistic to expect any country not to talk to Pakistan, even as it pursues stronger ties with India. New Delhi would be the first to recognise this reality, given that India continues to buy oil from the US’s long-standing rival, Russia, while seeking to deepen partnerships with both. Rubio alluded to this when he remarked, “They (India) have some relationships with countries that we don’t have relationships with.” India, however, has little reason to fear any hyphenation with Pakistan. India’s GDP is around $4 trillion while Pakistan’s is around $400 billion, and the gap is widening. This is also true of the global standingof the two nations (Pakistan secured its 25th loan from the IMF, earlier this year). The only form of hyphenation that exists is the one India risks imposing on itself, driven by domestic factors. The surest way to prevent any re-hyphenation is to separate Pakistan from internal politics and increase India’s leverage vis-à-vis economic growth and technological capacity. As External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently observed, “The best way of de-hyphenation is to outstrip the other party in terms of power and capability.” That, and not the state of US-Pakistan ties, should be New Delhi’s focus.