Romancing Trump |
It's a risky move. But Pakistan has gone ahead and done it. Will it pay off?
The optics at Davos were heartening. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is all smiles with US President Donald Trump on the stage as they lean towards each other and exchange hushed words. Then the PM points forward with a smile. Trump peers into the crowd and breaks into a grin of recognition while pointing at someone off camera. It turns out later, as confirmed by the PM to journalist Ansar Abbasi of The News, that Trump had indeed asked about Field Marshall Asim Munir and then acknowledged him in the audience when the PM told him he was in attendance.
The bromance, it appears, is still smouldering.
Which can't be bad for Pakistan. After all, this is what repeated Pakistani governments have desperately strived for. The cherry on the cake is that Washington is toasting to Pakistan at the expense of India. There is plenty that can go wrong — Trump being transactional and all that — but why look at the glass half empty? At a time of great chaos and collapse of the post-World War order, and when Trump is busy redesigning the trans-Atlantic relationship with a sledgehammer, it makes sense for Pakistan to resist swimming against the tide.
But which direction is the tide headed? This question tested the nerves of top Pakistani decision-makers........