WASHINGTON: The US Department of Defence has emphasised “a healthy military-to-military relationship” with Pakistan, hoping that these strong ties would continue in future as well.

At a Tuesday afternoon news briefing in Washington, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby rejected the suggestion that the United States could be forced to send its troops to Pakistan if the political situation in the country deteriorated.

“I don’t foresee any US military role here. And I’m certainly not going to, again, wade into internal domestic politics in Pakistan,” said Mr Kirby while responding to a question.

Both questions came from an Indian journalist, Raghubir Goyal, who was once described by The Washington Post as “Goyal the foil” for his tendency to turn any discussion into an India-Pakistan dispute.

Mr Goyal started with former prime minister Imran Khan’s allegation of US involvement in his departure and asked if the US military was “in touch” with the Pakistan military over this issue.

“I think you can understand that we’re not going to comment about domestic politics inside Pakistan, Goyal,” Mr Kirby replied.

“I don’t have any conversations with the new prime minister or his government to speak to today. I mean, this obviously all just happened.” Although not asked to do so, the Pentagon press secretary then underlined the key role Pakistan enjoyed in South Asia, including Afghanistan, where it recently helped Washington in negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban.

“We recognise that Pakistan plays a key role in the region. We recognise that Pakistan and the Pakistani people are, themselves, victims of terrorist attacks inside their own country,” said Mr Kirby, addressing a key concern often raised at such briefings.

“We recognise that we have shared interests with Pakistan with respect to security and stability in that part of the world.” The spokesperson then highlighted the strong ties between the two militaries. “We do have a healthy military-to-military relationship with Pakistani armed forces.”

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2022