Hyderabad: "You know what that is? That's like five hours of what we spend. And we're supposed to say, Oh, thank you for the library. I don't know who's using it in Afghanistan,” said Donald Trump in early January of 2019 mocking India’s aid to Afghanistan in what he called as merely ‘building a library’.
Trump seemed to be referring to the new parliament building constructed with Indian assistance and inaugurated by PM Modi in 2015 as a library building.
He made these remarks while addressing a press conference to explain his decision of troops withdrawal from the war torn country. New Delhi was upset and underlined the 3 billion USD of Indian aid and assistance as commitment to help rebuild Afghanistan and pointed out to the popularity and trust that India enjoys with local Afghans compared to Americans or Pakistanis.
Today, as he addressed a packed crowd in the newest and largest cricketing stadium of the world in Motera, Ahmedabad, Trump spoke of countering terrorism but was mellow in his remarks against Pakistan.
“United States and India are committed to working together to stop terrorists and to fight their ideology. For this reason, since taking office my administration is working in a very positive way with Pakistan to crack down on terror organisations and militants that operate on the Pakistani border,” said the 45th US President with PM Modi standing next to him on stage at the grand spectacle event of #NamasteTrump.
Like Barack Obama in 2010 and 2015, Trump has not hyphenated this first ever stand alone visit of an American President to India with a trip to Pakistan. Yet the timing of the visit clearly played on his mind with a US-Taliban ‘peace deal’ facilitated by Pakistan about to come into play soon.
“Our relationship with Pakistan is a very good one. Thanks to these efforts we are beginning to see signs of big progress with Pakistan and we are hopeful for reduced tensions, greater stability and the future of harmony for all of the nations of South Asia,” he said.
“Donald Trump wants a deal on Afghanistan. It is crucial for him to help him for his re-election bid. It is important to get the US troops back before the presidential elections in November 2020 and deliver upon one of his major promises,” says Anand Arni, Former Special Secretary RAW and Intelligence Analyst with the Takshashila Institution in Bengaluru.
It is this crucial deal which also saw Trump, who tweeted threats to Pakistan in January 2018, call Prime Minister Imran Khan a ‘good friend’ sitting next to him in White House last year and in Davos earlier this year.
“The relationship between US and Pakistan is very transactional. America has been leaning on Pakistan asking them to help for a year now and clearly Islamabad has played a role in bringing about this agreement. The period of reduction of violence , before the deal comes into effect, started only last Saturday. So one is not surprised with President Trump’s comments in Gujarat,” said career diplomat and former High Commissioner to Pakistan Sharat Sabharwal.
He adds that while US has been sustaining pressure on Pakistan to crack down on terror, but till such time they are dependent on Islamabad for an Afghan pullout, they will not lean too hard.
Meanwhile in the wake of the proposed peace deal, India’s concerns remain about Pakistan’s role after the eventual troop pullout and if several of the terror groups targeting India including Lashkar- e-Toiba shift their training camps to the Afghan border areas and be pushed into Kashmir. India is expected to flag its worries about the peace deal with Trump in formal talks in Delhi at a time when the final presidential election results announcing Ashraf Ghani as President are being contested by Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul. This has led to the bigger concern if this internal political dispute will further jeopardise intra-Afghan talks on sharing of power with the Taliban.
New Delhi will, meanwhile, also have to ensure that Donald Trump does not offer to ‘mediate’ on Kashmir again in near future to appease Islamabad, an offer that India has strongly rejected time and again as unacceptable calling the Kashmir issue as a bilateral one.
