US's Mike Pompeo arrives in Pakistan seeking 'reset' of ties

NEW DELHI: US secretary of state Mike Pompeo arrived in Islamabad Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to "reset" the frigid ties with a once firm ally, Pakistan, reported the country's media.


The US is hoping for change with a new leader in Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan, who though virulently anti-US in the past has shown restraint in his comments after he became PM.

"First stop Pakistan; a new leader there. I wanted to get out there at the beginning of his [Imran Khan's] time in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries," said Pompeo earlier, to media representatives travelling with him to Pakistan, according to newspaper Dawn.

The erstwhile firm allies' relationship has hit rock bottom over the last couple of years with the US extremely annoyed that Pakistan isn't taking decisive action against terror aimed at Afghanistan and India from its soil. And, if such a thing is possible, ties crashed even lower right at the start of 2018, no thanks to a blistering New Year's Day Twitter tirade by US President Donald Trump, who accused Pakistan of "lies and deceit".

Along with that Trump attack, Washington in January axed $500 million in aid to Pakistan. To make matters worse, the US twisted the knife in with another $300 million cut last week, mere days ahead of Pompeo's visit. The reason? Pakistan is still not doing enough to stomp out terrorism.

To say that US-Pakistan ties need a "reset" therefore is at best an understatement. But that's what both sides are hoping for, especially now, with new Prime Minister Khan. Pompeo's is the first official US visit with the new PM.

In his chat with the media en route to Pakistan, Pompeo did note that most of the developments that negatively affected Pakistan-US relations took place long before Khan was in power. He added that in his recent telephone call with Khan they agreed that peace in Afghanistan was a "shared goal."

"We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership, we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together," said the US secretary of state.

Aid cut to hit ties further?

When asked whether last week's $300 million aid cut was considered a good starting point for the "reset" of ties, Pompeo said the very reason for his trip was to clearly communicate with Pakistan what US expectations are, what Pakistan could do for it and vice versa, to avoid further aid cuts.

"(We want to) see if we can't find a path forward together...I'm hoping we can turn the page and begin to make progress. But there are real expectations," he said, adding that Pakistan needs to seriously engage to help the US get to the reconciliation needed in Pakistan's neighbour, war-torn Afghanistan.

Of course, Pompeo's agenda also includes a pow wow with the chief of Pakistan's all-powerful army; many say Khan is a military stooge. The US official is accompanied by the US military chief General Joseph Dunford.

"We'll also meet with (Pakistan's army chief) General (Qamar) Bajwa, who we both know, who I've met with a number of times, as well as my counterpart, Foreign Minister [Shah Mehmood] Qureshi," said Pompeo.

Pompeo noted that both the outgoing and incoming commanders of US forces in Afghanistan have said that reconciliation there was not possible without Pakistan's assistance, and that includes the Pakistani army's help.

"So, we'll have three opportunities to walk through the complexity that is this relationship and hopefully begin to make some progress so that we can get back to a set of common understandings," said Pompeo, the third opportunity he referred being a meeting with PM Khan.