US went easy on Pakistan’s military for years, says Blinken at HT Leadership Summit

Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday said Washington’s need for Pakistan’s help in Afghanistan had probably made it less critical of the military’s grip on Pakistan’s government. He said the US no longer views India through a Pakistan lens.“Seeing the relationship with India in some fashion through the prism of Pakistan, that is over and done,” Blinken said at the 24th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

He said the earlier approach was driven by expedience, mainly the US’s goals in Afghanistan, and that this had ended, allowing Washington to recalibrate.He drew a sharp line between the two relationships. India, he said, was a global force, while the relationship with Pakistan “has been regional”. “These are fundamentally different relationships,” he said. On terrorism, Blinken said the US had “zero tolerance”.

He said Washington must respect India’s right to defend itself when attacked, and also back the diplomatic efforts needed to deal with that challenge.He acknowledged that Washington’s past dealings with Pakistan had come at a cost. That expedience “probably caused us to have less of a critical hand when it comes to the government, the military, the civil-military balance,” he said.

“There is an opportunity for the United States to do more to try to see that balance change.”But he said the US could not impose an outcome. “These are decisions that Pakistanis make about the nature of their society, the nature of their governments, and it’s not going to be done by us or by anyone else. We can be very supportive, but these are fundamentally decisions that Pakistanis make.”He said he hoped the subcontinent would eventually be “integrated in the most positive way”.He described Pakistan as “a shadow” on India-US ties, and raised two concerns: the role of the Pakistani military in terrorism, and how civil-military imbalance undermines democracy in Pakistan.