In diplomacy, timing writes the script and optics stage the play. The timing besetting the recent United States government’s agreement to a $686 million deal to upgrade the Pakistani Air Force’s F-16 fighter planes, as indeed the various contexts surrounding the same, is ominous and questionable, to say the least.

Way back in 2021, Pakistan had formally submitted an appeal to the US government for such a comprehensive upgrade of its frontline fighter planes, but the Joe Biden administration had taken a suspicious view of Pakistani intent. Given the less-than-credible track record of the duplicitous Pakistanis in fighting terrorism (especially in Afghanistan, where US stakes were high at the time), with Imran Khan as Prime Minister (infamous as “Taliban Khan”), and with its continuing machinations across the Line of Control, the request was put on the back burner. Technically still a supposed “ally”, Pakistan was afforded scepticism, as the US did not want to jeopardise its growing equation under its “pivot to Asia”, ie, India.

This calibrated restraint fit well with the strategic template of maintaining “sustainment” of Pakistani military capabilities, as opposed to “enhancement”. Therefore, the next year, a much-curtailed “sustainment” package was offered, which did not enhance its war-fighting capabilities or weaponry. It made eminent sense to water down Pakistan’s request, because its ostensible justification of the F-16........

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