Trump cannot bear to sever the United States’ linkages with “longtime” ally Pakistan, the New York Times warned early Sunday morning, saying such a move on his part could be detrimental for America and pave way for even better Sino-Pak relations.
The publication went on to claim that Trump’s aggressive and very globally audible admonition seems to indicate that he does not have a proper strategy in his plans.
“President Trump’s bombast and the precipitous way the decision seems to have been made have led to doubts that Mr. Trump has a serious plan for managing the ramifications of this move,” the publication added.
Back on January 1, 2018, the American head-of-state had tweeted that the US had “foolishly” given Pakistan over $33 billion in aid over the past 15 years, adding that Islamabad gives “safe havens to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
The US had then announced to cut aid worth $255 million to Islamabad, with Heather Nauert — the spokesperson for the Department of State — saying, “We can confirm that we are suspending security assistance only to Pakistan at this time”.
On Friday, Major General Asif Ghafoor — the Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) — had said the aid suspension would impact bilateral security cooperation between the two nations as well as the regional peace.
“Suspension of security assistance will not affect Pakistan’s resolve to fight terrorism; however, it, for sure, will have an impact on Pakistan-US security cooperation and efforts towards regional peace,” said the Army spokesman.
