Enter the US ambassador

After a delay of four years, the US has finally sent its ambassador to Islamabad. Since 2018, the office of the ambassador was vacant and second-tier diplomats were looking after relationships between these two strategic partners.

Donald Blome, the new US ambassador, is a career Foreign Service officer who assumed office in Islamabad on May 23. Previously, he was the American Consul General in Jerusalem in 2015. He also worked as Director of the State Department’s Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs from 2013-2015. More importantly, he had been Political Counsellor at US Embassy Kabul from 2012-2013. Having served in restive Middle East capitals, he is an expert on major conflicts like Iran, Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan etc. These credentials have been officially made public and based on this information, it is safe to state that Blome is much more than what he has been projected as.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and the US President Donald Trump had enjoyed good relations. In front of media in Washington, they smiled and shook hands amid lively sessions. But Trump had visited New Delhi where Prime Minister Modi welcomed him with an army of flute players, drum beaters and singers. He had never sent his ambassador to Islamabad all through that period of bonhomie. This and many other steps show that the US had not given diplomatic credence to its relations with Pakistan during that period.

The dilemma with our diplomacy gurus is that they focus heavily, if not solely, on India and ignore Pakistan’s other neighbours. President Trump’s warning to Pakistan was meant to complete his mission of pull-out of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan after over a decade of war that had bombed Kabul back to stone-age. Pakistan also shared that goal because the governments of Hamid Karzai and then Ashraf Ghani were openly against Pakistan and in favour of India. But both Pakistan and the US could have made a better deal by not limiting themselves to Afghan Taliban and by enhancing their diplomatic interactions beyond Afghanistan.

Three days after the appointment of Blome, the US Embassy celebrated 75 years of close collaboration between Pakistani and the US foreign policy makers. They also circulated a photo showing former US president Gerald R Ford, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and others sitting together around a fireplace on February 5, 1975.

At that time, the anti-America wave was very high. Bhutto was publically castigating the US and making alliances with present-day Russia and China. The more anti-US he posed, the more popular he became. That hate gave him popularity, but blinded him to his nemesis General Zia ul Haq. Zia postured himself as the leader of Muslim Ummah who was more sincere than Bhutto. In his last days, Bhutto was reduced to sending messages to Western diplomats and the Shah of Iran to rescue him, but no one did. Despite invitations, Zia did not join the allied forces against Iran during Iran-Iraq war. It did not affect Pakistan’s relations with the US as both countries were sharing a common ground in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has now some new guests. It has the European Union that wants an end to violations of human rights by Taliban. Similarly, it has China that highlights atrocities on unarmed civilians by countries like Australia and the US during war time.

The whole regional scenario is changing, but the trend of US-bashing and hate-mongering by popular politicians and extremists has been going unabated and unprovoked in Pakistan. Anti-US rhetoric has become a ticket to popularity for politicians. For Blome, it may not be a different story as the countries he had served also suffer from this populism syndrome. But Pakistan is a volatile country he has not come across in the past. Pakistan will be going to be quite a balancing act for him.

The US and Pakistani people equally hope for success of both countries in bringing peace to their homelands. Flow of funds for terrorists is as lethal as flow of terrorists from one place to the other. Similarly, one-sided flow of information has a negative impact on Pakistani society. Let’s hope that Ambassador Blome will look for building these bridges for sustainable peace and prosperity in both countries.

The writer teaches mediatization at IIUI