International Affairs
By N. P. Upadhyaya
Kathmandu: Good news has emanated from Pakistan — one of the prominent members of the now India killed regional body SAARC and also a vibrant nation with nuclear capabilities in the South Asian region. Pakistan is also taken as a fitting political and nuclear deterrent to the regional devil-which India is.
The news is a noble one and ear-pleasing too provided the declared “destabilizer of peace”, India, reciprocates the Pakistani political propositions made in the recent days and weeks. Needless to say, if India is around one doesn’t need an enemy, it is commonly talked about in the South Asian political circuit. How the trouble-maker takes the Pakistani proposition will have to be watched.
Indian arrogance and “big brother” attitude is a matter that has been disconcerting the regional countries that unfortunately border with the colonizing regime. Beginning Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, all these countries are being punched by the regional Goliath at regular intervals. Baby Bhutan is a declared protectorate and prefers submission to India’s dictates so let’s not talk of this country. Almighty will take care of Bhutan, the country which under the instructions of the Indian regime, expelled thousands and thousands of Bhutanese nationals of Nepali origin to Nepal in the early nineties. The Bhutanese King is talked to have excessive India leaning.
And since the nineties, Nepal too is almost a protectorate of the regional rogue which should explain why the Nepali leadership behaves like a tamed Labrador-dog of the Indian establishment. This is unfortunate and a matter of absolute shame.
Similarly, the Maldives is also on the way to accept India’s coercive benevolence thus any advice to this island nation would be impractical. India’s massive investment in the Maldives speaks of the inner mal-intent of the Delhi regime. To recall, it is India which foments problems in these smaller countries through its spy agency or by recruiting RAW agents in these countries who in turn create political complications and later in the name of settling the internal disputes, India inserts its own political schema in such a way that the country remains afterwards in non-ending political anarchy and volatility.
Nepal is the classic case for those researchers who prefer to understand how India propels the politics of the neighbouring countries and in the name of settling the disputes between the conflicting parties, inserts its own political itinerary for all time to come which then compels the country in question to abide by the Indian instructions directly or through Indian proxies.
For the sake of convenience, Nepal has the largest number of Indian proxies posted by the RAW agency who even at times give an impression that they were “made for India”. This explains how proxies work or have been trained by the Indian establishment. PM Modi also has his siblings in Nepali media.
Bangladeshi scholar, Zainal Abedin, early last year at a Webinar held in Islamabad almost cried and appealed that a South Asian coalition should be formed to tame the regional Goliath which has corrupted his country. Abedin meant that the RAW is already a menace for Dhaka. By the way, at the time of the writing of this story, thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims have come to the streets of Dhaka chanting: “Go back Modi; Go back India”. Indian PM Modi is visiting Bangladesh shortly. To recall, Bangladesh as a new South Asian nation emerged with visible support from India under Indira Gandhi. In a way, late Gandhi could be taken as the “designer” of Bangladesh.
Pakistan though is a nuclear country and can match the ulterior motives of the regional scoundrel but yet has once again proposed “peace” with India. In a marked departure from the diplomatic tradition, the Army Chief of Pakistan, Qamar Javed Bajwa on March 18 has suggested or say made a fervent appeal to the Indian regime that peace can be forged between India and Pakistan if India takes the issue of the illegally occupied Kashmir matter seriously through a composite dialogue.
Army Chief Qamar Bajwa asked India “to bury the past and move forward”. He said this in a rare comment that has come a day after yet another champion of peace and an ace cricketer Prime Minister Imran Khan who also urged New Delhi, March 17 to move toward peace by resolving issues around the Kashmir region.
“It is important to understand that without the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through peaceful means, the process of sub-continental rapprochement will always remain susceptible to the derailment,” the powerful Pakistani Military man alerted the warring neighbour. Interestingly, the US immediately welcomed the move and encouraged the two (India and Pakistan) to “keep building on this progress”.
A day earlier Pakistani PM Khan while addressing the Islamabad Security Dialogue, 17 March said among other things, “India will also benefit with more trade and connectivity to Central Asia. This [Kashmir] is the one issue that holds us back. We will try our full efforts but it is for India to make a move. Until they do that, we cannot move forward”.
PM Khan further told the academic gathering of the Islamabad Security Dialogue, ISD, “With India, it is very unfortunate that we have tried to resolve our issues through dialogue like civilized neighbours, but it has not worked out. Our only issue is basically over Kashmir”. PM Khan had made a similar appeal to India while visiting Colombo in February early this year.
The statements of PM Khan and Army Chief Bajwa are almost the same which speaks that Pakistan needs peace with India if India reciprocates. As per PM Khan, Indo-Pak took a nose dive instantly when India took a decision to amend Article 370 and reorganize Jammu and Kashmir as a “big jolt” that led to a “full breakdown in ties”.
This is breaking news in that two competent powerful authorities from Pakistan have appealed for making “peace” with India. But why? This is the question.
The Army Chief made it clear that if peace works then India too not only will enjoy the regional peace and stability but can expand its commercial contacts with other countries, for example, with the Central Asian Countries and much beyond.
“India will have then broader marketable contacts inside South Asia and Central Asia”, is what the Army Chief opined.
“We are ready to improve our environment by resolving all our outstanding issues with our neighbours (read India) through a meaningful dialogue,” Gen Bajwa said.
All that Pakistan needs a relaxed environment for the talks to be held on Kashmir is which could be understood from Gen Bajwa’s statement. The stage thus is set now for India and it is India’s turn to act.
The peace overtures that have come from the good offices of the Pakistani Army Chief follow an unusual joint statement by military commanders from India and Pakistan last month renewing vows to adhere to a 2003 ceasefire in Kashmir. This move was unprecedented. This is also surprising that the two countries converge at a common point after many long years.
A rare political event in this part of the world. Nepal must welcome this positive move that is likely to bring peace in this India troubled region. But this time they did. This is perhaps astute diplomacy which takes surprising turns at times.
Now analyzing Qamar Bajwa’s fresh peace gestures, what could be drawn from his declaration is that Pakistan for its overall development needs peace both within and without and the Kashmir issue is the one that has kept it engaged for more than seven decades.
Its corollary would be that “had the Kashmir issue been solved amicably, Pakistan too would have concentrated its entire efforts for the development of the country by expanding its commercial ties in South and Central Asia”.
Geo-politics to geoeconomics:
Pakistan apparently hints that if the Kashmir issue is sorted out amicably complying with the UN Security Resolutions made in the past then it could concentrate its entire energy in the early completion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which has already been described as a “game-changer” for Pakistan. One more solid inference that could be drawn from the Army Chief’s fresh peace offer is that Pakistan earnestly wants to jump from “geopolitics” to “geoeconomics”. But why Pakistan and India suddenly have begun to talk peace with each other”? What has happened in the meantime? Are they, India and Pakistan, being pressed by some friendly countries near and far?
If so then which is the country or countries that have taken up the benevolent task of making peace in between the two warring neighbours? Yes, we have some clues.
High placed South Asian sources have told the telegraph.com that for quite some time in the recent months, Indian National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Dr. Moeed Yusuf, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special assistant on National Security Division and Strategic Policy Planning, had been in close contacts directly or through track two personalities or say through interlocutors.
It is the serious efforts made by these two men “behind the scene” on either side of the border that has made both countries realize that peace has to be made to bring in peace and stability in the South Asian region.
Yet another source close to the telegraph.com opined that Adel al-Jubair, Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs too appears to have used his good offices to “mediate” between Pakistan and Indian in the recent months.
To recall, Pakistan’s relations with the Saudi Kingdom had touched a new low when the “arrogant” Saudi Prince MBS demanded that the money Pakistan received from KSA as a loan be immediately returned.
A hard-pressed Pakistan complied but yet not ignored its ties with the Saudis for a variety of political and economic considerations.
However, when the KSA was taken to task by the new US administration over slain journalist Jamal Khassogi, Pakistan declared that it will yet side with the Saudis. And perhaps it is this Pakistani modesty that obliged Crown Prince MBS to instruct his state minister Adel al-Jubair to convince India and Pakistan to “give peace yet another chance”.
A BBC (Hindi service) world service on March 22 gives some information regarding Adel’s possible mediatory role.
Media man Khassogi reportedly died a mysterious death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Indian sources claim that Air Commander Abhinandan had been released by Pakistan when state foreign minister Adel Jubair played a mediatory role.
Abhinandan was the Indian pilot who was held captive by the Pakistani air forces in and around the Pulwama incident that deteriorated the already deteriorated India-Pakistan relations if one were to recall.
Last but not least:
Yet another section of intellectuals from the Gulf region authentically claim that it was the rigorous efforts made by the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed who only last month visited New Delhi and had proposed to India that he would talk to Pakistan for building peace in between the two countries India and Pakistan. Both Islamabad and UAE declined to make any comments when asked by media men to shed light on the ongoing peacemaking efforts being made by the UAE Foreign Minister.
What may surprise our domestic and international readers, in addition, is that the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan “have been invited to a regional conference on Afghanistan to be held in Dushanbe on March 30, which could be the first such opportunity for senior officials to meet since 2019.
This is ear-pleasing news for those who wish for peace and tranquillity in South Asia.
For the Road:
The two warring neighbours, India and Pakistan, are all set to attend an anti-terrorism seminar which will also see the active participation of China, Pakistan, and the other members of the eight-member grouping called Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), international media sources claim.
A decision to hold the joint anti-terrorism exercise called “Pabbi-Anti-terror-2021” was announced during the 36th meeting of the Council of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 18 March last week. Pabbi is reportedly the home of Pakistan’s counter-terror school.
Prime Minister Modi’s wish made on March 20 to his Pakistani counterpart after the latter was diagnosed with Covid-19, indicated that the estranged neighbours are thinking big to improve their deteriorated ties. Quiet diplomacy at its peak? All said and done, peace has no alternative. Peace is peace and so Pakistan and India both should see to the benefits of peace. Will they now? That’s all.
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