Dhruva Jaishankar, Executive Director of ORF America, has flagged renewed US outreach to Pakistan’s military as a major challenge for India-US relations. At a key US congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific, he criticized Washington’s attempt to balance ties with both India and Pakistan. His concerns follow the US EXIM Bank’s massive $1.25 billion funding approval for Pakistan’s Reko Diq mining project—an investment backed by US diplomats in Islamabad. Jaishankar warned that deepening US-Pakistan commercial and military cooperation risks undermining India-US strategic alignment at a crucial time for regional security and the broader Indo-Pacific strategy.