For the US, India is special. Islamabad can wait
The Obama Administration's effort to de-hyphenate India and Pakistan in its strategic calculus has come clear on Thursday. Pakistan's repeated requests to the US to intervene in the current crisis in Jammu & Kashmir have failed miserably. The White House spokesperson for South Asia, Peter lavoy, said it aloud: “Every country has a right to self-defence. We do empathise with the Indian perception that they need to respond militarily”. From this, it can rightly be gauged how Washington is justifying Delhi’s recent surgical strikes across the line of Control after the Uri terror attack. Unlike the previous years in Obama Administration, the shifting trend in approaching both India and Pakistan is now visible. lavoy was very blunt while stating, “We don't try to balance the relationship between India and Pakistan”. This signals that the US will have independent strategies to handle both the nations. However, Pakistan has been demanding parity with India from the US for long. It is good that Washington has outlined the contours of Islamabad’s reach to it. The Pakistani leadership must understand that its irresponsible behaviour towards India will no more be supported by the US. Pakistan's hypocrisy as an old ally of the US has come out in the open, as it has threatened to go to Russia if Washington is not ready to accommodate its current priorities. How crudely it is trying to manage and indeed force the US leadership to put pressure on India is evident by now. Also, Islamabad is threatening to create continued unrest in neighbouring Afghanistan if Washington does not deal with India properly. The American stance that the deadlock in Jammu & Kashmir must be solved by bilateral dialogue is making Pakistan even more frustrated. Currently, Washington does not require any alliance to come closer to Delhi as both the nations are working jointly in many crucial fronts which benefit the two more than ever before. Priorities between the two nations are no longer defined by traditional alliances, but by common interests. Thus, the India-US bilateral is fast moving into a new orbit. This proximity between India and the US has left Islamabad helpless.
Sensing the volatile ties with Pakistan, India must continue its outreach to the global community. This will help Delhi to project its stand better. Strong representations in multilateral forums will always highlight our case. Further, isolating Pakistan in major international forums may force that country to review its relationship with India. Therefore, persistent efforts to align and realign its ties with major powers like the US and Russia can contribute to India's bargaining power on the global stage. As nations today live and work with shared realities and concerns, re-imagining India in the new dynamics of power will obviously put it in a better position to deal with Pakistan. India must continue to pursue with the American leadership to rein in Pakistan.