A year after India's strike on JeM camp in Balakot across LoC, Trump treads cautiously on terror from Pakistan

Though he is visiting Ahmedabad, Agra and New Delhi just on the eve of the first anniversary of India's air-strike on a terror camp in Pakistan; United States President Donald Trump on Monday appeared to have carefully avoided rubbing Imran Khan's Government in Islamabad the wrong way.

Trump treaded cautiously on the issue of export of terrorism from Pakistan to India, even as he spoke about the menace while addressing the huge crowd at the newly built cricket stadium at Motera in Ahmedabad shortly after arriving in the city to commence his visit.

“The United States and India are committed to working together to stop terrorists and to fight their ideology,” he said, with his host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sitting on a chair on the podium and listening to him carefully. “For this reason,” the US President told the cheering audience, “since taking office, my administration is working in a very positive way with Pakistan to crack down on the terrorist organizations and militants that operate on the Pakistani border”.

As the applause at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Cricket Stadium subsided, Trump added: “Our (United States') relationship with Pakistan is a very good one.”

“Thanks to these efforts, we are beginning to see signs of big progress with Pakistan,” he went on, almost lending credibility to Khan Government's claim about cracking down on terrorist outfits – a claim, which is often dismissed by Modi Government.

Trump is visiting Ahmedabad, Agra and New Delhi just a year after the subcontinent had seen tension between India and Pakistan escalating over February 14, 2019 killing of over 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in a terrorist attack at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The attack had been carried out by a suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a terrorist organization, which had in the past launched several attacks in India from its bases in Pakistan. India had retaliated the February 14, 2019 attack with an air-strike on a JeM terrorist training camp at Balakot in Pakistan on February 26, 2019.

The US had publicly supported India in the wake of the terror attack. It had also played a key behind-the-scenes role to prevent the tension between the two nations from turning into a full-scale military conflict.

Yet, Trump on Monday refrained from playing to the gallery and lambasting Pakistan for exporting terror to India – apparently because his administration in Washington D.C. is now close to signing a peace-agreement with Taliban in Afghanistan and it was the Khan Government in Islamabad that helped the US interlocutors work out the deal.

The prospect of the US-Taliban deal being signed on February 29 has made India jittery as it would not only set the stage for withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force from Afghanistan, but also let Pakistan gaining a “strategic depth” in the war-torn country.

The US and India have of late not been on the same page on the role Pakistan plays in sponsoring terrorism in the region.

What also raised hackles in New Delhi is the Trump Administration's plan to restart training for soldiers of the armed forces of Pakistan. The US State Department of late sought approval from the American Congress to spend $ 72 million in the next financial year to restart the International Military Education and Training scheme for Pakistan. The IMET scheme was a component of the larger US security aid package, worth $ 2 billion annually, for Pakistan, but the entire programme was suspended by Trump Administration in January 2018 to force Islamabad to combat the menace of terror more effectively. The US move to restart the IMET programme for Pakistan signalled a change in Trump Administration's approach to Khan Government, which might hold it up as an endorsement by Washington D.C. for its endeavour to combat terror.

The US of late also tacitly helped Pakistan to escape blacklisting by Financial Action Task Force even as a review by the intergovernmental organization found that Khan Government had failed to fully implement the measures it had promised to put in place to squeeze flow of illicit funds to the terrorist organizations.