Pakistan fears US is targeting its China links as it seeks to settle scores from Afghanistan

After the fall of Kabul, Washington no longer needs Islamabad. Indeed, it is still smarting from Pakistan’s harbouring of the Taliban

This leaves plans to expand the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor into Afghanistan vulnerable, not least because Beijing has its own doubts about its ‘iron-clad’ ally

Reading Time:5 minutes

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi meets US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the 76th UN General Assembly in New York. Photo: AP

Published: 6:00pm, 2 Oct 2021Updated: 6:21pm, 2 Oct 2021

Fears are growing in Islamabad that the United States is targeting its plans to expand the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into Afghanistan, as punishment for enabling the Taliban’s return to power in August.

Pakistan’s efforts to “reset” relations with the US, so as to avoid being caught up in its intensifying competition with Islamabad’s closest strategic ally China, have been cold-shouldered by the administration of Joe Biden.

On September 14, as he was pointedly questioned by angry members of the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would soon undertake a formal reassessment of its relationship with Pakistan.

“This is one of the things we’re going to be looking at in the days, and weeks ahead - the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years, but also the role we would want to see it play in the coming years and what it will take for it to do that,” Blinken said.

Pakistan retains its status as a “major non-Nato ally” despite being denied US military assistance since September 2018.

Blinken told the Congressional committee that Pakistan had a “multiplicity of interests, some that are in conflict with ours”.

“It is one that has involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it’s one that has involved harbouring members of the Taliban ... It is one that is also involved in different points of cooperation with us on counterterrorism,” Blinken said.

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