Before Trump’s warning, US had cut aid drastically to Pakistan

US President Donald Trump said in a New Year's tweet that his administration is not satisfied with Pakistan's response on terror. Trump vowed to cut all aid to Pakistan for lies and deceit of 15 years.

While Trump made it loud and clear that he was unhappy, the fact is that the US had already started scaling down the aid to Pakistan in the later years of the Barack Obama administration.

In the year 2014, the aid to Pakistan was at 2.177 billion US dollars. In 2015 it reduced to 1.604 billion US dollars and in 2016 it further reduced to 1.118 billion US dollars. In 2017 the aid to Pakistan stood at 526 million US dollars.

Further, US has also made the disbursement of the Coalition Support Funds conditional. This fund pertains to a reimbursement to Pakistan for the logistic and operational support it provides for US-led military operations.

The condition that was imposed in 2015 was that Pakistan is doing enough against the Haqqani Network. The CSF in 2015 stood at 300 million dollars based on the above condition.

This component witnessed an increase in 2016 when it stood at 350 million out of 900 million US dollars. In 2017, it was 400 million out of 900 million US dollars. In 2015, the US headed then by Obama did not certify in Pakistan's favour in 2015 and 2016. The 2017 certification is still pending.

In 2018, the defence budget was reduced to 700 million US dollars and half of it was tied to the pre-condition that Pakistan acts against the Haqqani Network. A similar move was made to include the Lashkar-e-Tayiba under this bracket, but the same was resisted by the Pentagon which later led it to be dropped.

OneIndia News