Pakistan was never a technical ally of US, says White House

The White House has said that Pakistan was never an ally of the United States.

At a press conference in Washington DC, White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby said that Pakistan was never a treaty ally of the United States even though the two countries have had an intensive defence and security partnership.

Over the past two decades, the United States and Pakistan have had a complicated relationship. While the United States had to partner with Pakistan out of compulsion during the two decades of military involvement in Afghanistan, as Pakistan had influence over the Afghan Taliban and provided the land route to landlocked Afghanistan, the support of Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus to terrorists strained the ties.

In response to a question about the efforts of the outgoing Joe Biden administration to revitalise the “alliance with their long-term ally Pakistan”, Kirby was quick to point that there has never been such an alliance.

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Kirby said, “Pakistan was never a technical ally of the United States. I mean there was no treaty of alliance with Pakistan.”

Acknowledging the US-Pakistan relationship in recent decades, Kirby said that the two countries became partners over the past two decades to “deal with the terrorist threat that still exists on that spine between Afghanistan and Pakistan”. He went on to say that the commitment to combat terrorism affecting the region and Pakistan has not changed.

Kirby said, “We recognise that Pakistan is still – still the Pakistani people fall victim to terrorist violence coming from across that border [Pakistan-Afghanistan border]. We recognise that and we have and for as long as we’ll be in office here remain committed to working with Pakistan to address those common threats and challenges and that’s not.”

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Kirby’s comment about Pakistan not being a US ally comes days after a US lawmaker introduced a legislation in the Congress for the revocation of Pakistan's status as a 'non-NATO major ally' . While the designation includes the word ‘ally’ and carries a privileged security and defence partnership, the partnership is not an alliance in the real sense. Unlike North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) or Five Eyes, there is no commitment of collective defence or intelligence sharing.

Even though Pakistan is not a US ally and the non-NATO major ally’s status does not amount to a real alliance, Pakistan has milked the partnership well.

Since acquiring the designation in 2004, Pakistan has procured military aircraft, naval ships, and weapon systems from the United States under provisions specific to the designations. The procurements include F-16 warplanes, Orion maritime patrol aircraft, Cobra attack helicopters, C-130 military transport aircraft, a Perry-class frigate, 115 howitzers, surveillance radars, military radios, and thousands of anti-tank missiles.