Ranjit Kumar
At a time when the US is embracing Pakistan again, US President Joe Biden last Saturday surprised the international community by calling it the most dangerous country in the world. Pakistan has amassed a stockpile of over 150 nuclear weapons and who holds its button has been often questioned in American and European circles.
where did the mistake happen
The US keeps a close eye on Pakistan because of its dominance of terrorist and jihadi elements, but it has never officially said that Pakistan’s stockpile of nuclear bombs is not in safe hands.
- Still, the truth sometimes slips out of the mouth. Just like that, possibly accidentally, slipped out of Biden’s mouth. This was the reason that the US administration again issued a statement, cutting back on the statement of its own President that the government has credible control over Pakistan’s nuclear bombs.
- Biden did not say this from any official platform but at a meeting of the Democratic Party. Obviously, this did not fit into the official policy of the US.
- Meanwhile, Pakistan expressed strong objection to this statement of US President Biden. After this, the US administration thought it best to back away from its President’s statement.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (Photo: AFP)
So is the US administration knowing the truth and working to cover it up? In fact, the US has been trying to cover up Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions since the 1980s.
- In the eighties, when there was a discussion around the world that Pakistan was making atomic bombs, then concern was also expressed in the US Parliament.
The then Ronald Reagan government insisted on continuing military and financial aid to Pakistan, giving it a waiver. - At that time, there was a Soviet Union-backed government in Afghanistan, against which Pakistan remained a ‘country of the front’. Considering Soviet communism more dangerous then the US decided to turn a blind eye to Pakistan’s nuclear program.
- Concerned by this, lawmaker Larry Pressler, with the support of other fellow lawmakers, introduced an amendment to the 1961 Foreign Aid Act in the US Senate. There was a provision in this that military and financial aid could be given to Pakistan only if the US President certifies that Pakistan does not have an atomic bomb or is not a nuclear bomb maker.
- The Regan government then argued that if Pakistan was given more military and financial aid, it would not consider it the need to build an atomic bomb. Eventually the US Parliament passed an amendment to the 1961 Foreign Aid Act, known as the Pressler Amendment. This proposal came into force with effect from August 8, 1985.
- That is, now the US President could not give any military and financial help to Pakistan, unless he issued a certificate to the effect that he neither has a nuclear bomb nor is he pursuing this program.
- After Regan, the George Bush administration also respected the Pressler Act, but the Pentagon had a lobby that was pressuring the Bush administration to continue providing military and financial aid to Pakistan at any cost.
The question arises whether the same pro-Pakistan lobby has become active again in the US Defense Headquarters today. This question is also important because America’s attitude towards Pakistan seemed to have changed over the past two decades.
- US Presidents тАУ Bill Clinton, George Bush (Jr.), Barack Obama and Donald Trump have acknowledged that the society and administration of Pakistan, which has declared itself nuclear-armed, is being dominated by terrorist elements, which threaten regional and international security. can be proved.
- Donald Trump has even said that Pakistan has only deceived the US during the last two decades and has exploited more than thirty billion dollars from it in the name of fighting terrorism.
- In the last two years, current President Joe Biden also kept his distance from Pakistani rulers. Now suddenly the way America has decided to embrace Pakistan, it is surprising everyone.
As soon as Imran Khan’s government fell, Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited America and achieved such a trophy for Pakistan, which no ruler there had been able to take till now.
While America told Pakistan Occupied Kashmir up to Azad Kashmir, it also tried to tell the sovereignty of Pakistan over that area.
Along with this, a financial grant of $ 450 million to Pakistan and an assistance program to modernize F-16 fighter jets was also announced.
It argued that this help in modernizing the F-16 aircraft is being given to strengthen the fight against terrorist elements.
How absurd this argument is, it can be gauged from the fact that Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on this in America itself that ‘who are you fooling after all’. In fact, the US embracing Pakistan again is a cause of particular concern for India because whenever Pakistan has received US military aid, it has used it against India, increasing regional tensions and fears of the use of nuclear weapons. is born.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are those of the author.
