Imran Khan wants relationship with US like the one Washington has with New Delhi

WASHINGTON: Pakistan‘s Prime Minister Imran Khan is seeking a “civilised … even-handed” relationship with America, like the one he says the US has with Britain and India, while blaming the “peculiar ideology” of RSS for poor ties with New Delhi.
In an interview to the New York Times, Imran Khan blamed both the US and India for Islamabad’s failures on the foreign relations front without addressing Pakistan’s toxic embrace of terrorism for which it has been hauled up by the UN and the global community, even as he revealed a degree of envy at current state of US-India ties.
“Pakistan has always had a closer relationship with the United States than, say, India, which [is] our neighbor. Now, after the US leaves Afghanistan, basically Pakistan would want a civilized relationship,” Khan said, singling out “even handed” ties between the US and Britain, “or actually between US and India right now,” as the one Pakistan desires.
Khan also conjectured that Pakistan would have had a good relationship with New Delhi “had there been another Indian leadership” (other than the current one) and “we would have resolved all our differences through dialogue,” even though Islamabad’s sketchy ties with India spans decades across political dispensations.
“You know, probably out of all the Pakistanis, I know India better than all of them. I have had love and respect from India [more] than any one because cricket is a big sport. It’s almost religion in both the countries. So we tried. Didn’t get anywhere,” Khan, regarded as an extremist in his own country, claimed, attributing the failure to “a peculiar ideology of the RSS which Narendra Modi belongs to, which just came up against a brick wall.”
“Had there been another Indian leadership, I think we would have had a good relationship with them. And yes, we would have resolved all our differences through dialogue,” he said.
Khan also made normal ties between Pakistan and India contingent on resolving the Kashmir issue, presumably to Islamabad’s satisfaction. A status quo in Kashmir, he maintained, would be “a disaster for India because it will just mean that this conflict festers on and on … and so as long as it festers, it’s going to stop there being any relationship — normal relationship — between Pakistan and India.”
Disdained by Washington (President Biden is yet to speak to him even on phone), Pakistan’s prime minister laid out the familiar litany of complaints about what he called the “lop-sided” relationship with US, claiming Pakistan’s problem began when it tried to do Washington’s bidding, while glossing over the Pakistani military’s coddling of terrorists that pre-dated the US entry into Afghanistan.
He further blamed the Biden administration for diminishing Pakistan’s leverage with Taliban by giving out a date of withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The moment the United States gave a date of exit, Taliban basically claimed victory. They’re thinking that they won the war. And so therefore, our ability to influence them diminishes the stronger they feel,” he said.
Claiming that it was Islamabad that had persuaded Taliban to talk to the US, Khan said Pakistan has been emphasizing to the Taliban that “they should not go for a military victory because it’s not going to happen, because if they go for an all-out military victory, it would mean a protracted civil war” which would affect Pakistan the most.
The Pakistan prime minister also advised India not to accept any US-designated role as a bulwark against China. “I think it would be detrimental for India because India’s trade with China is going to be beneficial for both India and China,” he said, adding that he is “watching the scenario unfold and with a bit of anxiety.”