THE recent visit of Pakistan`s foreign minister to Washington and his meeting with the US secretary of state is being seen as yet another sign of fast-improving relations between the two countries that were formerly allies. The interaction between the top diplomats came about a month and half after President Donald Trump hosted Pakistan`s army chief at a White House lunch, the first time a US president has feted a military chief from Pakistan who wasn`t the head of state as well.

It signalled a dramatic revival of relations that had remained dormant for the past four years.

It`s certainly a positive development. Yet the contours of the new phase of the Pak-US relationship have yet to fully emerge. It seems more of a transactional than strategic relationship at this point.

There is also the question of whether the resetting of ties is the result of an institutional policy review in Washington or just Trump`s personal initiative, considering the American leader`s mercurial approach to key matters in international relations. Pakistan would be dealing with an administration that has the dubious reputation of rapidly changing priorities.

Pakistan`s military and civilian leadership seem pleased with the way they have boosted the US president`s ego by nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize, but the results of such actions are short-lived in light of the extreme ups and downs that this critical bilateral relationship has experienced overseven decades.

With the end of America`s two-decade-long war in Afghanistan in 2021, Pak-US relations have come full circle. Originally touted as a strategic relationship, it morphed into a transactional one. Perhaps the biggest confusion in various US departments revolves around how to deal with Pakistan as friend or foe? Post9/11, the two nations could at best be described as `frenemies Pakistan was blamed for America`s humiliation in Afghanistan. During Joe Biden`s administration, the relationship hit a new low. After the Afghan war, changing regional geopolitics created a fresh alignment of forces. The growing strategic alliance between the US and India andthe China-Pakistan axis are reflected in the emerging ge opolitics.

Pakistan`s growing strategic relations with China and the escalating tension between Washington and Beijing, too, cast a shadow over future Pak-US relations. Although Pakistan was still engaged by Washington diplomatically, the relationship went into deep freeze. Meanwhile, the US tilt towards India, which had emerged as Washington`s strategic ally in the region, too, affected Pak-US ties.

After a long freeze, a thaw was witnessed soon after Trump returned to the White House for the second time. In his first address to a joint session of Congress in March this year, the American president praised Pakistan for capturing the mastermind of the deadly attack at Kabul airport in August 2021, which had killed over a dozen American soldiers.

It was apparent that despite hitting a low in their relationship, the two countries continued to cooperate on counterterrorism. The capture of a key terrorist leader of the militant Islamic State group, who was involved in the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan, was one such example. Counterterrorism assistance helped with the thaw. Recently, Centcom chief Gen Michael E Kurilla detailed how such cooperation had led to the capture of the terrorist. `They [Pakistan] are in an active counterterrorism fight right now, and they have been a phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world, Kurilla said in his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in Washington.

Yet another significant breakthrough in the relationship between the two countries came with America`s role as peacemaker in the recent conflict between India and Pakistan. President Trump claimed it was US intervention that prevented a nuclear war between the two nations, though India has continued to deny yielding to outside pressure. It may have been the first time that trade was leveraged by an American administration in peace diplomacy.

The episode reflected a significant change in Washington`s stance on the Pakistan-India conflict. In recent times, America had shown littleinterest in facilitating bilateral engagement beyond reactive diplomacy to manage crises. But Trump`s public and vocal intervention in this case marked a departure from Washington`s long-standing policy of de-hyphenating its relations with the two South Asian nations. Some analysts see the change as the Trump administration`s move to recalibrate its tilt towards India.

India is certainly not happy that the US, which it considers a strategic ally, tried to play the role of arbiter. Yet, there is a limit to the role of an external power in bridging the widening cleavage between two warring neighbours.

Pakistan`s expectations that Washington could help bring itself and India to the negotiating table are unrealistic.

Historically, the Islamabad-Washington engagement has been framed narrowly, dictated either by short-term security interests or a common challenge. But the growing interest in rare earths and other minerals has also come to define the Trump administration`s policy towards Pakistan. Several US companies have reportedly shown an interest in Pakistan`s emerging minerals sector. But security issues in the region, where most of the mineral deposits are supposed to be located, makes it hard to attract foreign investment.

Pakistan is also close to reaching a deal with Washington on tariffs that is likely to give it an advantage over other competitors. Pakistan`s exports to the US are over $5 billion annually 18pc of the total exports of the country. Textile products comprise 75 to 80pc of total exports to the US.

For Pakistan, the US remains an important trading and economic partner. But there is also a need to be cautious so that the country doesn`t become a tool in America`s regional conflicts at the cost of relations with strategic allies. These concerns are heightened in the backdrop of growing regional tensions that directly or indirectly involve the US. Pakistan must not allow itself to be sucked into America`s wars.• The wnter is an author and joumalist.

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