The Heart of Asia Conference
The forthcoming Heart of Asia conference is taking place at a time when Pakistan’s relations with India and Afghanistan have touched the nadir. Indian FO has announced there would be no talks with Pakistan on the sidelines of the conference. This, despite High Commissioner Abdul Basit’s statement a day earlier, that Islamabad was ready for an unconditional bilateral dialogue with India. The relations with Afghanistan remain marked by simmering tensions. New Delhi meanwhile is doing everything to wean away Kabul from Pakistan through economic and military aid.
What is required under the circumstances is a patient and sustained diplomacy to change the regional situation in Pakistan’s favour. India has tried hard to isolate Pakistan but has badly failed to achieve the objective. The Modi government however wants to project an image of being tough with Pakistan in view of the forthcoming elections in UP and Punjab. Another so called surgical strike to offset the demoralising impact of the Nagrota terrorist attack cannot be ruled out. India however knows it cannot maintain hostility with Pakistan for long. Islamabad should therefore remain cool-headed while keeping the door open for talks
Notwithstanding India’s futile attempts to isolate Pakistan the need for Afghanistan and Pakistan to work together is recognized by the world at large. After Pak-Afghan-Turk trilateral summits and the Pak-Afghan-China-US quartet moots, Russia has called a tripartite meeting with Pakistan and China later this month to try to sort out the Afghan conundrum. Despite Kabul’s desire to get military hardware from India to fight the Taliban Afghanistan is aware of New Delhi’s constraints and deficiencies and knows that unlike Pakistan India cannot play a key role in fighting the Taliban or ISIS. Afghanistan has now welcomed the Chinese proposal of Quetta-Kabul and Peshawar-Kabul railway tracks with Ashraf Ghani maintaining that Afghanistan wants to have good ties and friendly relations with all its neighbors for the progress and prosperity of entire region. What Sartaj Aziz is required to do is to concentrate on important players attending the Amritsar moot, especially the Afghan delegation.
