Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Afghans join hands with India to fight Pak terrorism' that was published in Newsband

Afghans join hands with India to fight Pak terrorism

‘Heart of Asia’ conference, part of a 14-nation process, had begun in 2011. This conference took place recently. For India, putting terror centre stage at the Heart of Asia declaration in Amritsar was thus timely and necessary. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi focused their concerns on cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. Pakistan’s traditional allies at the conference, including China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey, found difficult to counter.

If every window for engagement with Pakistan is closed for India and Afghanistan, the two countries must closely consider what their next step will be. Agreement of India with Afghanistan is not bad in the way of fight against cross border terrorism. But, India should also be alert from Afghanistan which is holding India's hand only to defend the neighbouring country.

We certainly know Pakistan survives only by hating India. No point in engaging them. Even with China and Russia India should slow down their engagement since they support terrorist Pakistan.

India since a long time has been trying to maintain peace with Pakistan until recently. Given the circumstances, any chance of building a prosperous and peaceful region across the borders of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan is heavily dependent on the stake the mighty power houses, China and Russia, put in. Until and unless these two countries see themselves as the Interlocutors Of Peace, no harmonious neighborhood is possible in near future.

Many issues can be resolved through dialogues and this conference provides such opportunity to explore ways if diffusing tension. Pakistan participation is a good move. The Adrian countries must develop close co- operation in trade and commerce so that every country is benefited.

India is always trying to end terrorism by mutual exchange of views and consensus. But cornering of Pakistan has only led to its deeper ties with Moscow & Beijing. Those two nations also suffer from terror emanating from Pakistan and one hopes they too would instill sense in the Pakistanis. China cannot, for example, choose to fight ETIM but support Jaish and Lashkar. If seven decades of 'engagement' yielded nothing, let us try a decade or two of severe 'disengagement' as well. Pakistan has been badly singed by its support for terrorism but its 'enduring hostility' is such that it is willing to suffer more loss for itself by causing some loss to India.

Today we have a bipolar world with China, Russia, Pakistan and a number of other authoritarian countries of Central Asia on one side, and the U.S., Britain, Japan and Asian allies on other side. Is that a peaceful or a promising future? It’s a rather chaotic future where upcoming economies will be squeezed between the two sides. After the Russian economy had been hit by Western sanctions in the summer of 2014, Kremlin started to look in the direction of ME/Asia, particularly – adjusting Iran-Pakistan axis. A triangle between Moscow, Beijing and Islamabad is shaped from scratch as a result of recent geopolitical shifts. Russian annexation of Crimea & presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine have significantly worsened the relations between the West and Moscow. China’s goal is to change the world order

The incessant terrorism by Pakistan has concern in the polity of Afghanistan and it wants to shun Pakistani connection. India used the opportunity by joining the triangular understanding with Iran and Afghanistan via Chabhahar port for Asian connectivity. Pakistan's nexus with China and joining hands on CPEC project led India and Afghan to make the ties still stronger. Though Afghan has trade potential with other Asian countries, cross border terrorism and loss of peace are big hurdles for its growth even though it is the heart of Asia. India should create better ties with Afghan since both countries are sailing in the same boat of tolerating Pakistani terrorism.

We have talked with Pakistan for decades but failed to get them to stop supporting terrorism, even after numerous public promises. We also failed to get them to grant MFN even after many promises. We signed the Simla agreement which committed them to not engage in any war like activities and they refused to live up to it. They have already told us that they are engaged in a long term war. What is left to be said then?