New Delhi: In a significant step, US President Donald Trump has released $397 million to Pakistan to sustain the F-16 fighter jet fleet for counter-terrorism operations, despite ordering a 90-day foreign aid freeze soon after taking office.
Incidentally, it was Trump who had, in his earlier tenure, stopped the security aid to Pakistan which was reversed by the Biden administration.
Of the $5.3 billion that has been released, roughly $397 million to Pakistan has been approved by the administration under 243 exceptions to the aid freeze. The money will be spent through a US-backed programme, which monitors the use of Pakistan’s F-16 fighter aircraft for counter-terrorism purposes and not against India, according to Reuters.
In September 2022, the US administration under previous President Joe Biden approved a $450 million package to sustain Pakistan’s F-16 fleet for counter-terrorism operations. At the time, the US administration made it clear that the money was not for additional weapons, munitions, or technologies, but rather to maintain the ageing aircraft fleet.
Biden’s approval of the $450 million funding followed a ban on security assistance to Islamabad implemented by Trump during his first tenure in 2018. The fact that the Trump administration gave an exemption to the programme sometime in the last month provides some clarity on its foreign aid priorities—counter-terrorism and preventing the flow of narcotics into the US.
Roughly $4.1 billion of the foreign aid exempted from Trump’s executive order belongs to programmes under the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, according to the Reuters report. This specific bureau within the State Department oversees arms sales and military assistance.
In comparison, America’s humanitarian projects have received far fewer waivers under the Trump administration, with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) receiving only roughly $100 million in exemptions from the executive order signed last month. The Trump administration has targeted USAID, the government’s development funding arm. Earlier Sunday, Trump ordered the firing of roughly 1,600 USAID staffers. The roughly $100 million in exemptions for humanitarian projects under USAID is a fraction of its approximately $40 billion budget.
Israel and Egypt received exemptions from the Trump executive order freezing foreign aid programmes. The US was the largest aid donor last year, disbursing roughly $72 billion in assistance, according to Reuters.
The Trump executive order has faced legal challenges, with a US judge ordering the administration to restore foreign aid programmes and awards that were in place before the presidential inauguration. However, it is unclear whether any new exemptions have been granted since 13 February, according to Reuters.
source : theprint