On January 20, 2021, Joe Bide took oath as 46th president of the United States of America. Like other states that are in anger on Trump’s unilateral policies for over past four years, Pakistan is also willing to have good ties with the United States’ under Biden Administration. It is being forecasted that Biden would adopt the conducive approach that would strengthen Pakistan’s position on the regional and international arena. For Pakistan, three areas remain crucial; Afghanistan peace process, South Asia’s strategic balance and Pakistan’s position on the Abraham Accord in the overall context of the Islamic world.
It has been proved that the current momentum of the Afghan peace process has worried the Indian strategic community along with some spoiler of Afghan government who believe that US policy in Afghanistan would not any sufficient corner for thinkers associated with Bharatiya Janata Party, to have instability in Afghanistan-Pakistan region. It is too early to claim what would be the Biden’s policy towards Afghanistan Peace Process. However. the Taliban has expressed their willingness to continue the talks with the same enthusiasm in their substantive comments soon after the United States presidential election as “the Islamic Emirate would like to stress to the new American president-elect and future administration that implementation of the agreement is the most reasonable and effective tool for ending the conflict between both our countries”.
Due to the close neighbour of China, relations with the two nuclear states, Pakistan and India, always be a central concern of US’ foreign policy. After the Revocation of Article 370 by the BJP led Indian government, Pakistan has voiced against India’s unilateral oppression on the innocent Kashmiris. The US under the Trump’s administration didn’t make enough efforts to control the frequent human rights violation there, however, Biden has already criticised India’s discriminatory and anti-immigration law by stating inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy. The vice-president-elect has also highlighted the Indian oppression. She said, “We have to remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world”. Such intentions of the elected president reveal the inclinations of his intention towards Pakistan’s and her stance on Kashmir. Hopefully, the elected president would make efforts to bring the poor Kashmiris out of brutality and victimization.
The new Middle East that is being shaped by the Abraham accord, would be another US converging interests with Pakistan under Biden’s administration. Being only nuclear power Muslim country and by having equally good relations with the Muslim states, Pakistan enjoys a predominant status in the Islamic World. Contemporary, the US has been looking for a reduction in strategic threats in the Middle Eastern region. For that, Pakistan can be a prominent figure for the US states in the changing dynamics of the region, as it always opted the balanced approach towards regional states.
To conclude, there are substantial areas of cooperation for Pakistan vis-à-vis US. Both states need to have a rationalist approach to foster relations on the win-win perspective to deal with futuristic challenges.
