The Long Arc

Pakistan’s first years of statehood. The United States established relations as soon as Pakistan became independent, and the new government in Karachi looked to Washington for economic support and for help in building its armed forces.

Pakistan signed a defence agreement with the United States and joined the US-backed regional pacts, SEATO and the Baghdad Pact (later CENTO). It became one of Washington’s closest partners in Asia and received substantial military and economic assistance.

Wars between India and Pakistan in 1965 and 1971 led Washington to cut off arms supplies to both, which many in Pakistan saw as a failure of an ally. Pakistan meanwhile helped open the channel between the United States and China, and concern in Washington over Pakistan’s nuclear programme began to grow.

The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan made Pakistan a front-line partner once again. Large US aid packages followed, while Congress tied continued assistance to Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

With the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan complete, US nuclear-related sanctions took effect in 1990, and further sanctions followed the 1998 nuclear tests and the 1999 change of government. High-level contact continued but cooperation narrowed sharply.

After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Pakistan joined the US-led campaign in Afghanistan, sanctions were waived and assistance grew to some of its highest levels. Cooperation was extensive but often strained, and a series of crises in 2011 brought relations to a low point.

Both governments worked to rebuild a narrower relationship: dialogue resumed, US assistance declined and security aid was suspended in 2018. Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace process became a central thread of the relationship.

After the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, both governments have described their ties in broader terms, with trade and investment, climate, health, education and people-to-people links alongside security.