South Asia’s regional security environment is in a flux mainly due to deteriorated relations between India and Pakistan and partly due to the security situation in Afghanistan. New momentum in Kashmiri freedom struggle, the arrest of an Indian spy in Pakistan, violation of Pakistan’s maritime boundary, claims of surgical strikes, unprovoked aggression on LOC and working boundary, all these developments have given rise to new tensions. Irresponsible rhetoric has been a hallmark of Indian political leadership since assuming of power by Modi government.
The real challenge in bilateral dialogue process has been the priorities of issues for both states. For Pakistan, Kashmir is the core issue, while for India terrorism is the most important issue. Despite lacking evidence, India has been setting preconditions regarding the investigation of terrorist attacks like Mumbai, Pathankot and Uri attacks. Modi government has been pursuing an aggressive policy without declaring war against Pakistan. It is trying to isolate Pakistan at regional as well as global level but has achieved limited success in this regard. Chinese and Russian representatives at BRICS did not fulfil Indian desire to isolate or single out Pakistan by referring to terrorism. Similarly, at General Assembly session, Prime Minister of Pakistan highlighted grave human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir.
At the regional level, the postponement of SAARC summit shows the dominant attitude of India regarding its smaller neighbours. Geographically, South Asian region is the Indo-centric region with India having borders with all the states except Afghanistan. This geographical leverage gives India power to dominate regional politics. It remained successful in influencing the smaller states to postpone their participation in the SAARC summit that was scheduled to be held in Pakistan.
Another event where India was able to prevail upon other states in condemning Pakistan was Heart of Asia summit held in India. Heart of Asia, Istanbul Process has been an initiative of Turkey where three countries Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey have worked to institutionalise the arrangements to foster regional cooperation and connectivity.
Heart of Asia initiative was Afghan-centered process exclusively focused on Afghanistan. The biggest strength of this process has been that it was an Afghan-led process that was to ensure peace and economic progress. The complexity of the Afghan situation, insufficient organisational support and funding have been the major challenges that Heart of Asia process had been facing. It is due to the fact that makes the role of neighbouring regional countries important. Pakistan had stakes in the stability of Afghanistan and attended the Heart of Asia Conference in India. Both Mr Modi and Mr Ashraf Ghani joined hands in criticising Pakistan for its alleged support of terrorism.
It is ironical that states instead of dealing with their own issues are blaming others for their problems. India while ignoring Kashmiri people’s demand for their right of self-determination has been using violent means to crush the Kashmiri freedom movement. While Afghanistan has been ignoring the internal political dynamics of its state and has been blaming other countries for its problems. States to resolve bilateral conflicts need to resort to dialogue process without setting preconditions and showing an attitude of accommodating other’s sensitivities.
The introduction of new technologies, new weapons systems, and new alliances have been contributing to further destabilise already volatile region. India’s Defence and security cooperation with extra-regional powers have repercussions for regional strategic stability. The cooperation with extra-regional powers for safeguarding mutual interests should not be at the cost of regional peace and stability.
Apart from traditional security challenges, South Asian states have been simmering in poverty, underdevelopment, unemployment and low-intensity conflicts. Low socio-economic indicators, bad governance and corruption, have been the main reasons for creating non-traditional security challenges. These challenges have been further exacerbated by extremism and radicalism in the societies of South Asian states. Good governance, promoting participatory culture and socio-economic uplift of the people can address these internal security problems. Addressing internal challenges and their results would ultimately lead to realising the benefits of addressing external challenges as well.
The writer works at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and can be reached at [email protected]