Daily Times

New York City: Dialogue? What Dialogue? New Delhi and Islamabad have once again locked horns against each other at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). The events preceding the respective addresses of the foreign ministers of the two countries were no less than a dramatic scene out of a political thriller, with bilateral talks being stalled at the 11th hour by the Indian government. It was a clash that was meant to be.

India has used such tactics from time to time on flimsy grounds to backtrack from meaningful interaction with Islamabad. There was nothing new in the current drama at the 73rd UNGA, for Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj clearly played to local galleries with her hate-filled jibe at Pakistan. In fact, it was like a cassette being played on repeat, since Swaraj delivered a speech recycled several times in recent years. Indeed, she did speak about global cooperation and connectivity, but had no proposals for her own region where organisations such as SAARC remain hostage to India’s personal aspirations. Not only this, she even allegedly left the SAARC Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in New York City without listening to Pakistan’s point of view. Why hold such meetings when the largest member state is not even willing to talk?

As for Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, he was quite eloquent and aptly presented Islamabad’s case to the international community. His address focused on connectivity and cooperation on mutually respectful grounds but cautioned that the world is heading towards a ‘troubled’ political order. He did not hesitate in pointing fingers at New Delhi over its alleged role as a state sponsor of terrorism in Pakistan while openly naming and shaming Kulbhushan Jhadav, an alleged Indian spy of Naval Commander rank.

Nevertheless, Qureshi too was playing to an equally jingoistic audience in Pakistan by speaking in Urdu -perhaps being inspired by Swaraj’s Hindi? Whatever the case may be, it is the people of the Indian subcontinent that are affected by the chess games being played at the top, and the onus lies with a repulsive regime in New Delhi that behaves like a child full of tantrums.

South Asia needs to redefine its role in the international community and take lessons from the horrors of the past. From an environmental point of view, water and food security remain the biggest challenge for the region but unfortunately, no serious attention is given to these issues. Similarly, Kashmir remains the key political challenge which needs immediate attention for the two nuclear-armed states for a concrete resolution to take place. The four-point and Chenab formulas are a good starting point to explore options for the troubled Valley.

Having attended Qureshi’s presser last week at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City after his UNGA address, it is pertinent to mention that his party’s government needs to garner stronger international support and get out of its comfort zone to take matters to the right direction. Friends can easily be convinced but the key challenge is to convince those on the other side, and this certainly includes the United States, which has entered into a strategic alliance with India. Indeed, Pakistan is heading towards an unholy alliance with Russia, a former nemesis from the Cold War days, but it cannot discard those it partnered with for decades. In realpolitik, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only mutual interests.

The writer is a diplomatic correspondent, at Daily Times. He can be reached at hassankhan440@gmail.com and tweets @mhassankhan06

Published in Daily Times, October 2^nd, 2018.