Pak one-upmanship

THE drastic improvement in US-Pakistan ties in recent months, especially after the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, has adversely impacted New Delhi’s relationship with Washington. The US has brazenly ignored India’s contention that perpetrators and victims of terror should not be equated. There was a ray of hope for Delhi last month when the US designated Pahalgam-linked The Resistance Front, a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a global terrorist outfit. However, the optimism has proved to be shortlived. The US has labelled the Balochistan Liberation Army, a thorn in Pakistan’s flesh, as a foreign terrorist group, even as Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir recently ranted about Kashmir during his second trip to America in two months. Trade, tariffs, terrorism — America’s soft spot for the economically and politically unstable South Asian nation is as clear as daylight.