Trump’s tough talk should worry Pakistan

This refers to the editorial, “Well begun’s half done” (January 3). US President Donald Trump lambasting of Pakistan as a “safe haven for terrorism” is apt.   Not that past US Presidents were, in Trump’s description, ‘foolish’. Undoubtedly, one does have to be farsighted enough to decipher Washington’s sympathetic leaning towards Islamabad. A super-power like the US could get away with any blunder — that may also be its way of ‘balancing’ equations in the region. America increasingly feeling the ‘terror heat’, advocated and backed by Pakistan, must have irked Trump to no end. The President has cushioned his indictment of Pakistan with action by holding back two $50 million foreign financing to Islamabad. Now that Pakistan’s ‘double game’ is exposed, the US cannot halt in its tracks.

Maintaining unflinching pressure on Pakistan is very essential to further expose Islamabad. It goes without saying that Pakistan is not comfortable with a stable Afghanistan. Even as India is emerging as a close confidant of the US, Trump’s stunning blow could derail Pakistan, unless it has other ideas. That said, the US rushing in more troops to Afghanistan is definitely no music to Pakistan’s military. However, all this is good news to New Delhi. Contrary to expectations, after President Trump assumed office nearly a year ago, India-US ties have been bolstered by the straight talking Trump. Unlike Barack Obama, who played the ‘please all’ game, Trump’s conviction in not beating around the bush must have come as a welcome relief to India.