US resumes military training programme for Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has decided to resume military training and educational programme for Pakistan after more than a year it was suspended.

According to media reports, the State Department announced that the administration has approved the resumption of Pakistan’s participation in the programme. The International Military Education and Training Programme was blocked last year in August citing cuts in funds. The programme facilitates slots to foreign military officers at the US military education institutions.

The resumption of the IMET programme reflects a new turn in US and Pakistan relationship, especially after Prime Minister Imran Khan's meeting with President Trump. The media reports mentioned the State Department official saying that Trump's decision last year to suspend security assistance authorised "narrow exceptions for programmes that support vital US national security interests." The decision to restore Pakistani participation in IMET was "one such exception," the official said adding that the programme "provides an opportunity to increase bilateral cooperation between our countries on shared priorities."

"We want to continue to build on this foundation through concrete actions that advance regional security and stability," the official said. The decision to resume Islamabad’s participation in IMET for more than a decade is a pillar of US-Pakistani military ties – it underscores warming relations that have followed meetings this year between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Imran Khan, a British wire service reported on Friday.

Washington also has credited Islamabad with helping to facilitate negotiations on US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. The talks recently resumed between the United States and the Taliban.

The State Department administers IMET. It was a small facet of US security aid programmes for Pakistan worth some $2 billion that remain suspended on orders that Trump abruptly issued in January 2018 to compel the nuclear-armed South Asian nation to crack down on Islamist militants. Trump’s decision, announced in a tweet, blindsided US officials.