In a view of aiding counter-terrorism, the U.S. has extended a $450 million deal to revive and resuscitate the F-16 fighter jets of Pakistan, despite the indelible blisters of 9/11 attack, the USA is stepping ahead to confirm its deal by Wednesday.

Historical Closeness between USA and Pakistan

U.S. support to Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pak war

During the pre-1971 Indo-Pak war, the America directly supported Pakistan by leasing its nuclear submarine “USS Diablo (SS-479)” in 1964 under the Security Assistance Program (SAP), which was renamed “PNS Ghazi (S–130)” and deployed in the Bay of Bengal, to challenge Indian Navy. But the tenable Indian forces were able to neutralize it successfully.

Timeline of induction of F-16 fighter jets into PAF

Indifferent to objections from India and several American CIA members, the American President Ronald Reagan delivered the maiden batch of F-16s in the mid-1980s.

Following the 9/11 (11/Sep/2001) attack on World Trade Centre and Pentagon square led by the infamous terror outfit Al-Qaeda, the U.S decided to spring up assistance to Pakistan in a wishful ambition to curb terrorism, little knowing to have fed the wrong hands.

Being occupied in its “political priorities” in the Middle East (during 2003), the USA considerable delegated its resources to Pak ISI, which was overtly used to foster Taliban, to inflict on India (on the Kashmir issue).

PAF foul play behind the screen

Little late did the America realize that Pakistan is circumventing USA’s terms and conditions which directed to restrict the deployment of U.S. fed jets to combat terrorism when Pakistan blatantly used them to strike India following the “14/Feb Pulwama attack” (during the Balakot air strikes 26/Feb/2019).

Yet, like in the past America paid lackadaisical assurance to have strict scrutiny over the F-16 usage.

Also, there are speculations which claim that the jets used by Pakistan to help the Taliban surmount the Panjshir valley were none other than F-16s.

Imprudent actions

The USA with a condescending ambition to have regional clout in various parts of the globe, has been engaging in political dynamics of other nations, the prominent ones are:

• Fostering the rise of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, before eliminating him in 2010, with an ambition of getting an oil discount.
• Competing with Russian invasion grounds, causing a mortified exit in two infamous occasions “Vietnam (1965 – 1975) and Afghanistan (2001 – 2020).”
• Adhering to the dictums of USA blindly backfired Pakistan, in the form of insurgency led by the Anti-Pak faction of Taliban.

Invidious U.S. foreign policy

Unfriendly sanctions of U.S.

The sanctions of the USA are predominantly targeted against ‘human rights violation’ and ‘threat to regional order’, these sanctions prevent other nations from having certain selective trade with these nations, so far the U.S. sanctioned States are:-

Iran: (other nations are sanctioned from purchasing oil), imposed in 2015 for a nuclear weapons program, immediately revoked under JCPOA; and presently undulating to restore.

Venezuela: (other nations are sanctioned from purchasing oil), sanctioned due to human rights suppression in its elections 2014 – 2017.

Bangladesh: (warned to reduce investments), Alleged for the persecutions by “Rapid Action Battalion” (which was meant to prevent border infiltration).

China: (licensing restrictions to American biotech companies), For human abuses over Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang province.

Russia, North Korea & Iran: (Restrictions over defense purchase), These States were common adversaries to America which were perversely progressing.

Russia (exclusively): (ousted from SWIFT banking network, oil trade sanctions, among others), Due to conflict with Ukraine.

These sanctions befuddle Indian economic interests causing misbalance in the native economy, especially during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India was under critical pressure from the west to discourage the incident, and the most unsettling incident was when the USA’s Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh “issued warning dictums for having oil trade with Russia, by circumventing American sanctions”.

Although India was able to get some wavier under CAASTA, it is still unable to engage with Iran regarding the Chabahar-port project.

Unilateral interest

On 7/Apr/2021, the U.S. Naval ship USS John Paul Jones entered into territorial waters of India (which it refused to admit) by claiming “freedom of navigation”, although this was intended to jab China, it must be noted that the USA is not a signatory to the 1982 UNCLOS.

Position at UNO affecting India’s priority towards Sri Lanka

USA being a funding lynchpin in international platforms and a P-5 member, it has clout in all decision-making matters, especially concerning trade-related aspects like “liberalizing patent rights – on the matters concerning to subsidies – investment policies, in WTO”, “imposing sanctions on various nations for human rights violation in UNHRC”, has been infelicitous to India.

Sri Lanka, facing severe economic distress due to the impact of the pandemic and aggravated by botched government policies was unable to procure loans from the America-led IMF and World Bank due to their unappeasable terms and conditions, thus making it bog down to China, which has encroached it.

Galling the issue, the USA had repeatedly called for support for the resolution against Sri Lanka in UNHRC over the historical prosecution of Tamil minorities during the deadly war against LTTE in late 2010.

Although India and other nations supported Sri Lanka appropriately in several instances, (2012, 2013 and 2014) the latest resolution in 2021 impacted the Sri Lankan government and imposed restrictions on the military chief for their actions.

These resolutions are criticized by the Sinhala and Tamil communities of Sri Lanka as an attempt to shatter the social fabric of Sri Lanka because instead of extending any economic aid, the USA and its allies had always been targeting Sri Lanka purportedly to prevent its confluence with China.

India which is facing persistent migrants’ issue from Sri Lanka is facing escalated issues with the ongoing economic crisis.

Action needed

The western nations having a huge lobby in the financial domain can aid in lone of credit to revive the Sri Lankan economy, with India as an epitome in this domain. Further, IMF and World Bank can liberalize their norms to provide loans at concessional interest and thus prevent the nation from slipping into the debt trap of third-party nations.

Apart from financial assistance, medical supplies and food distribution from the World Food Programme under UNHRC would take the nation a long way.