Emerging geo-political landscape in the South Asian region is more complex and requires deft handling by India. Discuss
Refer - The Hindu
IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
Afghan calculations
· U.S and Afghanistan have expressed a desire to enlist India’s support to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and as well as checking Pakistan’s influence in the Afghanistan.
· For U.S, courting India is also useful in balancing the increasing Chinese presence in the region, including in Afghanistan.
· The U.S.’s disagreeable statements about Pakistan are intended to woo India to cooperate closely on Afghanistan.
· But despite its anti-Pakistan rhetoric, the U.S. is also courting Pakistan in pursuit of its strategic objectives in the region.
Contradictions in U.S. policy
· U.S strategy of courting India to counter Pakistan in Afghanistan, and engaging India and Pakistan to checkmate China, while at the same time viewing China’s role in Afghanistan as that of a potential stabiliser shows a clear contradictions.
· The U.S. has had a love-hate relationship with Pakistan since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979 through to 2001, and thereafter.
· The indispensability of this relationship needs to be properly understood by India when fashioning its own response.
· India must also be aware that the absence of long-term commitments is one of the central features of U.S foreign policy.
· There was no reaction from U.S when Pakistan decided to drop terror charges against Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed.
The China conundrum
· China is challenging U.S hegemony in the South Asian region, willing to build peace and mine minerals in Afghanistan, and selling dreams of inter-regional connectivity and economic prosperity in the South Asian region.
· The potential revival of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (comprising U.S., China, Pakistan and Afghanistan) shows China’s inevitability in South Asian region.
Way Ahead
· India should consider participating in Afghan peace talks while being conscious of its redlines and ability vis-à-vis Afghanistan.
· India should stick to its decision not to send troops to Afghanistan while at the same time enhancing its training of Afghan security forces and reconstruction efforts.
· India needs to carefully design the contours of its China policy: aligning our China policy to suit U.S. interests would not help our long-term interests.
· E.g. U.S maintains a steady silence in doklam stand-off.
· Russia is in fact increasing its stakes in the South Asian region, including in Afghanistan, with close strategic ties with China, and increasingly with Pakistan.
· India will not allow U.S to distract our attention from the strategic realities of our neighbourhood.
