President Barack Hussein Obama, while promising a more responsible America, as the 44th President, has issued a foreign policy agenda, which will not please Pakistan.
The ‘agenda’, released by the White House, minutes after took the oath of office ‘amidst gathering clouds and raging storms’ to quote Obama himself, told Pakistan that it would be held accountable for the security in the border regions of Afghanistan and that its performance in the fight against terrorism would be linked to the financial aid to it.
‘President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will increase non-military aid to Pakistan and hold them accountable for security in the border region with Afghanistan’, the document said. It was released to the media soon after the First Black President of the United States of America stepped into the Oval office.
Analysts said the new Foreign Policy towards Pakistan is in sync with the known policies of Vice-President Joe Biden; Secretary of State-designate, Hillary Clinton has echoed the Biden line during her nomination hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
As Vice-President elect, Joe Biden, visited Afghanistan and Pakistan last fortnight. And as the Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he, along with Republican Senator, Richard Lugar, last year authored legislation that proposes to triple non-military aid to Pakistan in the next five years.
Under the proposal, Pakistan will get $7.5 billion over five years in aid that can be used for building schools, roads and clinics. In return Pakistan will have three obligations.
First, it must provide greater accountability on security assistance, improve Pakistani counterterrorism capabilities.
Second it must ensure more effective efforts to check al Qaeda and associated terrorist groups from operating in its soil. Also it must make concerted efforts to prevent the Taliban from using its territory as a sanctuary to launch attacks on Afghanistan.
Third, Islamabad will need to ensure that it does not materially interfere in the political or judicial processes of the country, the legislation says.
Put differently, Obama’s foreign policy goals reflect the basic features of Biden-Lugar proposals.