Opinion Clinton in Pakistan: Terms of Re-engagement

Clinton was scheduled to come to Pakistan earlier this month for the next round of the ‘strategic dialogue’ between the two countries. Amidst the embarrassment and anger in Pakistan after the US Raid,Clinton postponed the visit.

While Washington has had the upper hand since the killing of bin Laden,the Obama Administration might consider it important to mollify the hurt sentiments of Pakistan’s establishment and offer some incentives for cooperation with the United States.

A day before she arrived in Islamabad,Clinton praised Pakistan as a ‘good partner’ and suggested that the US would not want to abandon the partnership. Her officials,however,were outlining a much tougher position.

They say Pakistan is ‘skating on thin ice’ and that Clinton won’t be satisfied with more promises from Islamabad. Washington now expects the Pak Army to meet specific benchmarks on counter terror cooperation.

Clinton is also likely to make it clear that if Islamabad does not measure up to her expectations,a cut in the US and international aid to Pakistan might be inevitable.

Clinton was preceded in Pakistan by John Kerry,who heads the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry laid down a road map re-engagement,and was followed by senior US officials who apparently fine tuned the road map and clearly defined the steps expected.

A day before Clinton arrived,Admiral Mike Mullen,the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff,and the principal interlocutor with Pakistan in recent years was in Rawalpindi conveying the US expectations.

On its part,Pakistan has already complied on some of the smaller issues: returning the remains of the helicopter that crashed during the Abbottabad raid,giving US officials access to the wives of bin Laden,and letting US teams collect forensic evidence from bin Laden’s safe house.

The US wants more. According to the CNN,Clinton expects Pakistan to “go after senior al Qaeda targets,take action against factories producing improvised explosive devices for use against US troops in Afghanistan and support Taliban reconciliation”.

As the US-Pak bargaining unfolds,Delhi might want to monitor the outcomes from the Clinton visit on three issues.

One is whether the US will make Pakistan Army actions against the Lashkar-e-Toiba a priority.

Two,the wiggle room that Islamabad might have in slicing and dicing its responses to the US demands.

Three,Delhi would want to get a sense of the political demands that

the Pakistan Army is making on the United States in relation to

Afghanistan and India and the extent to which Washington might go in accommodating them.