NEW DELHI, Oct 15 (TNS): India has been left bewildered or perplexed with US President Donald Trump’s tweet that he is starting to develop a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders, even thanking Islamabad for cooperation on many fronts.
The Trump tweet is being seen as an acknowledgement by the US of Pakistan’s help in securing the release of a US-Canadian family from the Haqqani network.
Political commentators are of the opinion that Trump’s comments again underscore Pakistan’s strategic significance for the US in stabilizing the region.
India’s leading newspaper Times Of India has written that it’s difficult for India to dismiss it is a stray, throwaway remark as it follows similar comments by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently after his meeting with Pakistan foreig
n minister Khwaja Asif. Describing the US-Pakistan ties as extraordinarily important regionally, Tillerson had said that Pakistan was critical to the long-term stability of the region.
“Tillerson, with that remark, seemed to have echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, who had described Pakistan as a key regional player while warning the US against putting Islamabad under pressure. Kabulov made that remark shortly after Trump accused Pakistan of “housing the very terrorists that we are fighting”. TOI wrote
“These developments have in a way also exposed the limitations of India’s campaign to isolate Pakistan internationally which saw the government recently describing the hostile neighbour as ‘terroristan’ at the UNGA last month”. The newspaper wrote.
