WRITING about Pakistan-US ties is like penning literary criticism of a Shakespearean play. One constantly reinterprets and looks for new answers to old questions. How does one evaluate Pak-US ties under President Donald Trump? Do Trump’s extravagant compliments to Pakistan’s leadership reflect happy relations between the two countries? The short answer is no. American leaders routinely indulge in hyperbole. Add to it the sales pitch of a marketing ‘genius’, and you get Trump’s effusive but effervescent compliments.

Compared to Joe Biden’s time, US-Pakistan ties have no doubt been elevated, but not upgraded. The uptick stems from more than Trump’s bonhomie with Pakistan’s leadership. The relationship is largely a function of his experimental foreign policy. He is reassessing America’s China policy and relations with Russia, rebalancing ties with traditional allies and partners — to America’s advantage — and deprioritising, though not abandoning, the traditional foreign policy establishment’s overweening ambitions to maintain US global primacy. The emphasis is on unilateralism, the naked use of military power, and economic warfare.

This foreign policy stems from his whims, with his politics........

© Dawn