Foreign policy issues: US-India deals can escalate border tensions, say experts

Speakers say Indo-American agreements could also stoke arms race in region.

Diplomats and foreign policy experts have stressed the need for a comprehensive strategy to deal with the aftermath of US-India agreements on defense, space and nuclear cooperation.

They discussed President Obama’s trip to New Delhi earlier this week and its implications for Pakistan at a session organised by the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) on Friday, said a press release.

Former ambassador and UN representative in Iraq Ashraf Jehangir Qazi said Pakistan needed to urgently address issues of immediate concern like extremism and sense of deprivation and alienation among the public. “We need not worry about India’s growing relationship with the United States as long as our foreign policy is operational and rational and our image abroad in not worrisome,” he stressed.

Ambassador Qazi feared that being perpetually locked into a zero-sum game with India could distract the country from its larger economic plan.

Islamabad Policy Research Institute President ambassador Sohail Amin said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was primarily pursuing an economic agenda as he sought to build stronger relationships with big world powers. He recalled visits by the Chinese and Russian presidents to Delhi over the past few months – both of whom signed major agreements.

Amin said China would like to solidify its relationship with Pakistan and at the minimum would like to see completion of the economic corridor within the stipulated time of 2017.

SVI President Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said the Indo-US agreements on military sales and co-production of state-of-the-art weapons system would seriously erode the already highly asymmetric conventional military balance; intensify India’s existing aggressive military posture on LoC and the working boundary and harden its position on bilateral disputes.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2015.