• Ashburn, United States
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  • Mar, 29th, 24

XINHUA-PAKISTAN SERVICE

Chinese media deplores US's attitude towards PakistanBreaking

August 24, 2017

BEIJING, August 24 (INP): The United States needed to respect and consider Pakistan's interests and difficulties, and not push the latter too hard on anti-terrorism issues. It will be stupid if the US abandons Pakistan and particularly short sighted to get too close to India and drift away from Pakistan, reports Chinese State-run media house, Global Times. Commenting on US’s new afghan policy, the paper said, Washington has to figure out what it wants from Afghanistan in the future. It fought in Afghanistan in a bid to take revenge for the 9/11 attacks and overthrow the Taliban regime, which was far more resilient than expected. The US is unable to wipe out the Taliban and doesn't want to completely pull out of Afghanistan. It is ambivalent in dealing with Pakistan and doesn't trust China enough. Trump's new strategy actually aims to maintain the status quo since he has no new idea to end the stalemate, and sways between the tactics of Obama and George W Bush. The Afghanistan situation is complicated. A huge challenge in ending the war lies in how to bring back the different forces into the political process. The US needs to enhance cooperation with China and improve ties with Pakistan to stabilize the Afghanistan situation. China and the US share many common interests in the Afghanistan issue and both wish to see the country return to peace and stability. In fact, Afghanistan could become a bridge for the two to expand their cooperation. The US should give a constructive response to China's concerns about a US military base in Afghanistan and support China's Belt and Road initiative. The major problem in Afghanistan is social and economic reconstruction. It's no easy thing to bring an organization defeated by US troops back to Afghanistan's national regime. No single power can deal with the Afghanistan issue. The Trump administration should promote effective cooperation between international forces. But Trump's new strategy neither emphasizes international cooperation nor provides new thinking in facilitating national conciliation. It is worrying that the new strategy ignores the reality that the Trump administration may in the end not exit the Afghanistan war. INP/J/AH/LK