Washington's relationship with Islamabad used to run on a single track. Now, it's running on at least three, and the order in which this year's events unfolded says something about which one now leads.

It started, fittingly, with diplomacy rather than defence. In February, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the inaugural Board of Peace summit in Washington. The two sides discussed critical minerals, energy, counterterrorism and investment, in that order, according to the State Department's own readout. Rubio welcomed Pakistan's participation in a recent Critical Minerals Ministerial; Deputy PM spoke afterward of advancing economic and trade ties. A relationship once introduced to the world through drone strikes and troop surges was, for one afternoon, introduced through a mineral ministerial.

That emphasis wasn't accidental. Days later, the Office of the US Trade Representative opened formal public consultations towards a "Plurilateral........

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