Via Pakistan's Dawn, New Delhi remains irritated by talk of a brokered Kashmir settlement with Pakistan:
India on Wednesday said it needs no external help to improve ties with neighbor Pakistan, in a testy response to a statement issued by the United States and China.
New Delhi is sensitive to what it perceives as any outside interference in its regional diplomacy, especially over Pakistan and the fate of the disputed Kashmir region.
The United States and China issued a joint statement after President Barack Obama met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, which included a line of support for the improvement of India-Pakistan relations.
‘Government of India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a peaceful bilateral dialogue,’ an Indian Foreign Ministry statement said.
‘A third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary.’
Which is a problem because lots of informed people think a third country role is necessary. And because the importance of improving India-Pakistan relations is hugely important to solving our AfPak problems--and wildly out of proportion with the minimal discussion it gets here in the US. If Pakistan could ever learn to stop fixating on India as a mortal enemy it might get a) more serious about devoting military resources to fighting indigenous Islamist radicals and b) end its double-game of supporting Islamists in Afghanistan, whom Islamabad views as a handy buffer against Indian influence in that neighboring country.
People forget--or may not know--that India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the last 50 years.
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COMMENTS (2)
Now the Indians know how the Israelis feel when foreign governments make statements urging them to make peace with their Arab neighbors for the sake of regional stability.
By the by, no one should be surprised that the Indians don't take kindly to Chinese communiques about the Kashmir situation. China has historically been one of Pakistan's closest allies, and also fought a war with India in the 1950's over disputed territory in the Himalayas.
Now the Indians know how the Israelis feel when foreign governments make statements urging them to make peace with their Arab neighbors for the sake of regional stability.
By the by, no one should be surprised that the Indians don't take kindly to Chinese communiques about the Kashmir situation. China has historically been one of Pakistan's closest allies, and also fought a war with India in the 1950's over disputed territory in the Himalayas.
China annexed a part of the Kashmir territory in that 1950s war, and it's been helping Pakistan with military aid for years, so it's hardly a neutral third party. If Obama wanted to influence the Indians on Kashmir, issuing a joint statement with China is probably not a the way to do it.
I'm not sure Pakistan can afford not to fixate on India as a mortal enemy. The only thing that holds Pakistan together as a country is having India as the common enemy.
And what possible settlement can the US broker? Pakistan wants all of Jammu & Kashmir. India would probably be happy to fix the border at the current line of control, and would never agree to give up the Kashmir valley which it controls ... view full comment
China annexed a part of the Kashmir territory in that 1950s war, and it's been helping Pakistan with military aid for years, so it's hardly a neutral third party. If Obama wanted to influence the Indians on Kashmir, issuing a joint statement with China is probably not a the way to do it.
I'm not sure Pakistan can afford not to fixate on India as a mortal enemy. The only thing that holds Pakistan together as a country is having India as the common enemy.
And what possible settlement can the US broker? Pakistan wants all of Jammu & Kashmir. India would probably be happy to fix the border at the current line of control, and would never agree to give up the Kashmir valley which it controls. It's not really realistic to think Pakistan could dislodge India from Kashmir in a conventional conflict and India can probably handle the slow bleed of terrorist attacks indefinitely.
So your choices are actually very similar to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Either convince the Pakistanis to accept some version of the current border, or the Indians to give up all the territory they control. Neither is likely.