With the UK trying to broker an agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Taliban reconciliation, it is learnt Islamabad has asked London to limit Indian activities in war-torn Afghanistan.
It is not clear what the UK response has been, Afghan and the British role in a possible Taliban reconciliation deal between Islamabad and Kabul would be high on the agenda, when British Prime Minister David Cameron meets Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for talks today (Tuesday), The Times of India reported. Cameron is on a working visit to India.
The paper quoting sources reported that said Pakistan had made this request to Cameron during last week’s trilateral meeting with Hamid Karzai at Chequers, the British PM’s country home. Cameron had hosted both leaders for the trilateral that is searching for a viable way to bring the Taliban into the mainstream in Afghanistan, get Pakistan to release Taliban leaders, who are in Pakistani custody.
India will also be holding its own trilateral meeting on Afghanistan today (Tuesday). Senior officials from India, Afghanistan and the US will meet to coordinate activities in Afghanistan, an exercise that has assumed more importance, thanks to the impending drawdown of US troops from that country. The first meeting of the trilateral took place on the sidelines of the UNGA last September. It is also predicated on the continuing activities in Afghanistan by India and the US after 2014. In fact, the Afghan government has asked India to intensify its activities inside Afghanistan even after the US withdrawal.
There is growing wariness within India about the apparent consonance of interests between the UK and Pakistan. India believes that the UK may be helping Pakistan achieve its core interest of facilitating a Taliban return in Afghanistan and a return to the strategic comfort of the 1990s. Pakistan is not likely to release the Taliban leaders without important concessions to their core interests. Pandering to these could end up seriously destabilising Afghanistan as well as threatening Indian security interests. Indian officials said they did not seriously believe that the UK would want to undermine India hence, New Delhi would seek greater clarity from the British leadership regarding their intentions. British officials insist India had been kept in the loop at every step of the way from a phone call by the British foreign secretary after the trilateral meeting to regular official interaction between the foreign offices.