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With pressures mounting on the northern frontier, India knows it cannot afford escalating tensions to its west, says Shashi Tharoor.
NEW DELHI: Recent conciliatory moves by India’s nationalist government on its western flank have rightly aroused global interest.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s calculus appears relatively simple. Faced with continued Chinese aggression on India’s northern frontier and a likely Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, improving relations on the country’s western flank, with Pakistan, seems prudent
In recent weeks, there have been reports of secret back-channel talks between Indian and Pakistani security officials – facilitated by the United Arab Emirates – aimed at easing bilateral tensions.
India has also been talking to the Taliban, which it long derided as surrogates for the Pakistani army, reflecting the increasing likelihood that the mullahs will reclaim power in Kabul following the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in September.
Furthermore, India has kept two of its consulates in Afghanistan closed since last year, a long-standing Pakistani demand that it had resisted for two decades.
And in late June, Modi’s government held surprisingly amicable talks in New Delhi with 14 mainstream Kashmiri political leaders. Almost all of them had been arrested during the government’s crackdown in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that began in August 2019, and had been demonised by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party since then.
INDIA CAN’T AFFORD ESCALATING TENSION
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NEW DELHI: Recent conciliatory moves by India’s nationalist government on its western flank have rightly aroused global interest.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s calculus appears relatively simple. Faced with continued Chinese aggression on India’s northern frontier and a likely Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, improving relations on the country’s western flank, with Pakistan, seems prudent
In recent weeks, there have been reports of secret back-channel talks between Indian and Pakistani security officials – facilitated by the United Arab Emirates – aimed at easing bilateral tensions.
India has also been talking to the Taliban, which it long derided as surrogates for the Pakistani army, reflecting the increasing likelihood that the mullahs will reclaim power in Kabul following the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in September.
Furthermore, India has kept two of its consulates in Afghanistan closed since last year, a long-standing Pakistani demand that it had resisted for two decades.
And in late June, Modi’s government held surprisingly amicable talks in New Delhi with 14 mainstream Kashmiri political leaders. Almost all of them had been arrested during the government’s crackdown in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that began in August 2019, and had been demonised by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party since then.
INDIA CAN’T AFFORD ESCALATING TENSION
Commentary: India cosying up to Pakistan is latest move in a regional chess game with China
With pressures mounting on the northern frontier, India knows it cannot afford escalating tensions to its west, says Shashi Tharoor.
