Pakistan's anti-India narrative will not work for Joe Biden

Pakistan may not succeed in selling an anti-India narrative to the United States, after Joe Biden takes his oath as the president in January, according to a report in the ANI.

Pakistan will be focusing on resetting its relationship with the US under the presidency of Joe Biden after its ruined rapport with President Donald Trump. The main focus would be on stressing upon the importance of Indo-Pakistan equivalence in the US's approach so that the US would adopt a balanced approach towards the issues related to both countries.

Pakistan would try to address Biden through a history of his visits since the 1990s and his connections there. Biden was also at one point the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later the Vice President in President Barack Obama's administration. He was also the chief planner of the Kerry-Lugar bill and the policy of engagement which supported a sustainable long-term relationship between the US and Pakistan.

Pakistan may want to warn Biden about India by trying to address the chipping away of the central pillar of the Indo-US relationship that is the shared democratic values. Pakistan can go about portraying India as exclusivist with a receding scope of such values and violation of democracy and human rights. It can also use prime minister Imran Khan's reiteration on how India has become extremist and fascist under its current dispensation.

Munir Akram, who is Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said that improving ties with Pakistan would be beneficial for the new American administration and called the US-India partnership a wrong choice.

Kashmir is another issue that Pakistan expects to prick Biden because of the latter's staunch belief in the American values of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression all over the world.

Even Vice President-elect Kamala Harris made a statement last year, "We have to remind Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world. We are keeping track of the situation. There is a need to intervene if the situation demands." Taking that into context, Pakistan hopes that Biden would address the issue of the removal of the special status of the contested state and question India regarding the same.

Pakistan would also hope that Biden as a president would manage to compete with China without conflict. That would reduce Pakistan's dependency on China and it can leverage its relationship with the US. It is of concern for Pakistan that if Biden continues with the stance of the Donald Trump administration towards China, it would have a bad impact on its need for international financing through such bodies as the International Monetary Fund. It would also make it difficult for Pakistan to extricate itself from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) 'grey list'.

Pakistan must also be wary of Harris's take on the persecution of Uighurs in Xinjiang. So, Pakistan would not be able to ignore the issue if it comes up to be an element in Biden's view of China. The Afghanistan policy will be another forum of concern. This will be difficult as Biden is likely to look at the US-Taliban agreement earlier this year. The reports of continuing ties between the Taliban and Al Qaeda and the unacceptable levels of violence may put pressure on Pakistan.

As the Biden administration would primarily be focusing on its internal matters, Pakistan would try to get it to focus on the subcontinent as something that it cannot ignore. It includes activating the Line of Control and producing a dossier accusing India of fomenting terrorism in Pakistan.

These efforts may not come to fruition especially when it comes to the Indo-US relations which have become broader with time. It is apparent with the recent signing of the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) between the two countries. Biden will hope to build on these relations with India as that is something he called his dream in an interview in 2006. Even a policy paper during the presidential campaign suggested that Biden would priorities its relationship with India by pushing India to be a permanent member of the UNSC and continuing cooperation in climate change, health, terrorism, and trade. This paper detailed Biden's role in the foreign relations committee and as the Vice-President in deepening the strategic engagement ties with India and their collaboration on global challenges.

The US will continue to focus on Pakistan when it comes to the safety of its nuclear weapons and for such concerns as terrorism and the future of Afghanistan. Pakistan may not have a lot more to offer that would be of interest to the US. The return of traditional foreign policy establishment after Donald Trump's exit would not bode well for Pakistan either.

Its anti-India narrative will not work out given its own track record in Balochistan with the kill and dump policy and the murders of Ahmadis and those accused of blasphemy, as well as the forced abduction of minor girls of its religious minorities and the suppression of media under its current regime.

It is not likely that Pakistan would be able to affect the trajectory of the Indo-US relationship under Biden. It may then look to get the US to restore its policy of aid that had taken a hit during the Trump presidency.