US cancels $300 mn in security aid to Pakistan
FRAYING TIES decision comes days ahead of Pompeo’s visit to Islamabad WASHINGTON
: The United States has decided to cancel $300 million in security-related aid to Pakistan that had been suspended over Islamabad’s failure to take decisive action against terror groups operating from its soil.
The Pentagon proposes to use that money — which came from security-related Coalition Support Fund (CSF) — for other purposes, if approved by Congress.
“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy, the remaining $300 (million) was reprogrammed,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said in a statement on Saturday, first reported by Reuters.
He said another $500 million was stripped from Pakistan earlier this year, to bring the total amount withheld to $800 million.
The decision comes days ahead of a visit to Islamabad by US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and chairman of the chiefs of staff Joseph Dunford, who would be the first senior US officials to meet newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The US has given Pakistan more than $33 billion as aid since 2002, the year after it invaded Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks. Of this sum, an estimated $14.5 billion came under CSF, which is a reimburse- ment to coalition partners in Afghanistan for expenses incurred in support of the international coalition.
However, funds under this heading have been shrinking as the US grows more and more frustrated over Pakistan’s continued reluctance to act decisively against terrorists acting from its soil.
From next year, US military will cease extending any aid under CSF, and switch Pakistan and other beneficiary countries such as Egypt and Jordan to funds set aside for border secu- rity, and the amount earmarked for Pakistan for 2019 is $150 million.
The timing of the cancellation of the $300 million also comes at a delicate point in US-Pakistan ties. The Trump administration has shown no willingness to ease pressure on Pakistan — a US training programme for Pakistani military officers was the newest casualty of this toughness — and has been largely cool to the new government in Pakistan.
Islamabad turned the situation a little more awkward recently when it sought to dispute a US readout of a phone called between Pompeo and Khan. It insisted terrorism did not come up in the call and demanded a correction. The United States replied it was standing by the readout. It didn’t seem like a good start.
Defence secretary James Mattis said earlier this week that in their discussions during their upcoming Islamabad visit, Pompeo and Dunford will make clear “what we have to do, all of our nations, in meeting our common foe, the terrorists. And... make that a primary part of the discussion”.