Pakistan more isolated after India-Afghan pact

Pakistan, with its ties strained with the United States, is looking increasingly isolated after rival India signed a wide-ranging agreement with Afghanistan.
Pakistan wants a major say in shaping any peace settlement in Afghanistan, where India is taking an active but low-profile approach to building influence through aid and investment.
On a two-day visit to New Delhi, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sealed a strategic partnership on Tuesday that spanned closer political ties to fighting terrorism. It signals a formal tightening of links that may spark Pakistani concerns that India is increasingly competing for leverage in Afghanistan.
“Suspicion will increase, but that’s a negative approach,” said independent Pakistani political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi, referring to the Pakistani reaction to the agreement. “Unfortunately, there is so much Indian obsession in Pakistan that with every minor Indian move, there is panic,” he said.
Government spokesmen in Pakistan, which has long feared a hostile India over its eastern border and a pro-India Afghanistan on its western border, were not immediately available for comment.
The agreement with India is one of several being negotiated by Kabul, including one with the United States, that are part of an Afghan bid for greater security as NATO troops head home.
Karzai’s visit comes during rising Afghan frustrations with Pakistan.
Senior Afghan officials accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of masterminding the assassination last month of Kabul’s chief peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani with the Taliban. India is one of Afghanistan’s biggest bilateral donors, having pledged about $2 billion since the 2001 US led-invasion for projects from the construction of highways to the building of the Afghan parliament.
India, which has trained a small number of officers from the Afghan National Army, is offering more security training to Afghanistan. Even though nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have been trying to improve relations, analysts say Pakistan is desperate to minimise any Indian role in Afghanistan. To do that, analysts say, Pakistan is looking to the Haqqani Afghan insurgent network to counter Indian sway, a strategy that infuriates Washington.
Karzai and Singh also agreed to closer cooperation in the strategically key sectors of oil and gas exploration, mining and infrastructure development.