Trump should end Pakistan’s status of non-NATO ally; India deserves it more – Firstpost
For Washington to provide any weaponry, technology, or even foreign aid to Islamabad makes as much sense as the United States subsidising Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela
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In 1987, the US Congress created Major Non-NATO Ally status to bolster countries that maintain important strategic relations with the United States. The designation is not simply honorific; it also bestows benefits such as favourable access to materials and supplies; it also qualifies the partner to receive technologies still in the testing process and facilitates regular training with the US military. Beyond its military benefits, the status is diplomatic endorsement, increases commercial confidence in the relationship, and greenlights investment.
In recent years, however, the designation process has broken. In 2022, President Joe Biden awarded Major Non-NATO Ally status to Qatar, notwithstanding that country’s support for the Taliban, Hamas, and a host of other Islamist, extremist, and terrorist groups. While Bahrain—host to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet—became a major non-NATO ally in 2002, Biden left both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates without the designation, largely to appease the same progressive base that also remains hostile to India.
President George W Bush awarded Pakistan Major Non-NATO Ally status in 2004 against the backdrop of the Afghanistan War. Afghanistan itself received the status in 2012, though Biden revoked it following its fall to the Taliban. Pakistan never deserved the privileges of Major Non-NATO Ally status. After all, Pakistan supported the Taliban. Two Pakistani factories supplied the precursors for 90 per cent of the improvised explosive devices the Taliban used to kill American soldiers. Pakistan sponsors and refuses to extradite the terrorists responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, terrorism that killed 141 Indians and six Americans, among dozens from other countries. Pakistan is also today a satrapy of China. A leaked document from 2023 shows then-Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar openly advocating for Pakistan to pivot more closely to Beijing. For Washington to provide any weaponry, technology, or even foreign aid to Islamabad makes as much sense as the United States subsidising Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela.
National security is not about assuaging feelings or seeking the goodwill of terror sponsors like Pakistan. If Biden can remove the Taliban’s Afghanistan from Major Non-NATO Ally status, why should Trump not remove the Inter-Services Intelligence’s Pakistan from the designation?
India is, of course, an independent country. It prides itself on its independent path and consciously seeks to avoid defence alliances with the United States, Russia, or other major powers. Indian officials, for example, resist treating “the Quad” as anything more than a diplomatic construct. Beyond the United States and India, the other two members—Australia and Japan—are both major non-NATO allies. So too are countries like New Zealand, Brazil, and Thailand, each of which, like India, has reasons to resist formal defence alliances.
The simple fact is India deserves Major Non-NATO Ally status. US-India military exercises already occur; Tiger Triumph 2024, held in late March last year near Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, was a major benefit to both countries. India can still diversify the sources of its military imports, but recent Russian defaults on contracts due to the Ukraine War should make guaranteeing prioritisation from US suppliers an Indian interest.
Trump likes India and has a close, personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Neither leader will need to waste time with confidence-building or getting to know the other. Trump may be busy with his inauguration and the evening balls on January 20, 2025, but early the next morning Modi should telephone Trump and request formal Major Non-NATO Ally status for India. Frankly, no country deserves it more. While the two leaders converse, Modi should ask Trump whether he will continue that status for the China-embracing, terror-supporting government now dominating Pakistan.
Michael Rubin is director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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