The US State Department has said that no single effort, even by a superpower, could change the trajectory of India-Pakistan relations. What is required is a regular engagement between the two neighbours to bring this change. This essentially means that the US is not going to help, and the two can fight it out. What the US has being doing in this context is truly “no single effort”, where Pakistan’s problems with India are concerned. The US has been inching closer to Delhi, and will always have a lot of say in the matter of the Kashmir dispute, yet it wont. Additionally the UN has removed Kashmir issue from the list of disputed issues in 2010. The problem is now a bilateral issue.
The fragility of the Pakistani state is also to blame. The collusion of the Pakistani military with some sections of the Taliban during the US-led War on Terror has made the US extremely suspicions and jumpy. Washington’s key allies outside of NATO are recognized democracies — and include Israel, South Korea, Japan and Australia. India is the largest democracy in the world and next on the list of respected allies. The idea of an India-US alliance is not new. It is just that it never came about. Even when Pakistan was a key US Cold War ally, until at least the Sino-US rapprochement, the US expected India to become an Asian counterweight to communist China, along with Japan. Currently, the US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific makes India a key stakeholder in the Obama administration’s Asian pivot to counterbalance China’s rising geopolitical ambitions in the region. Pakistan was never going to be that counterbalance.
In this scenario, what is the point in helping sort out the issue of Kashmir? Humanitarian concerns, human rights, peace between nations? The Americans really aren’t that idealistic. Kashmir will be resolved when India decides it wants it resolved. Only when India was ready did its dispute with Bangladesh end. Pakistan can make an international outcry, but no body is listening apart from of Modi. Modi will do what he likes; he is not going to get a rap on his knuckles from the US. They are too busy selling him guns and tanks.
But just because Pakistan is smaller, doesn’t make it a non-treat to Indian power. We must make sure that the warmonger is seen as one. The fear of Pakistan in India has almost mythical dimensions. Pakistani diplomacy needs to exploit these fears, and make enough of an international spectacle so that Modi’s designs are noticed by the global community.