THIS refers to a threatening statement made by Senator John McCain at Kabul airport at the start of his tour of Afghanistan. He said: “we have made it very clear that we expect they (Pakistan) will cooperate with us, particularly against the Haqqani network and against terrorist organisations. If they don’t change their behaviour, maybe we should change our behaviour towards Pakistan as a nation”.

This statement comes from the chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee. It speaks volumes of the new strategies being evolved by the superpower.

Since Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington and the unprecedented welcome accorded to him there, things have changed. It is another thing we have not taken notice of it.

Our arch-enemy’s visit to Israel shows he is focused on isolating Pakistan in the world community. He also intends to exploit our position against the background of the Middle East crisis over Qatar.

Let us accept that Indian diplomacy has turned a heartless, cruel person, a persona-non-grata, into a dignitary. Modi is planning to visit some important capitals of Muslim countries to offer his offices for reconciliation between them. He has US support.

As against this, one is dumbfounded to see a highly-charged political situation in the country, which makes the people at the helm of the country’s affairs unable to take notice of international developments and the threats hurled on us. This is being construed by our enemies as our haplessness.

As we don’t seem to be responding to the situation, a common citizen does feel concerned. We are focused on a single case – Panama papers. Our enemies have also been monitoring the situation in Pakistan.

In the present international situation, things seem to be going against us, while our enemies are trying hard to make the world believe we do not have the ability to solve our problems.

Ghazanfar Ali Chaudhary

Bhimber, Azad Jammu & Kashmir

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2017