Pakistan and Afghanistan, wary neighbours, have also seen an improvement of ties in recent months with the launch of the North Waziristan operation and the election of President Ashraf Ghani. Washington is most likely hoping this will continue as it reduces its military presence in Afghanistan. The US secretary of state John Kerry arrived on Monday on an unannounced visit to Pakistan and it seems that more pressure is going to be put on Pakistan to stay the course. Kerry will meet with Nawaz Sharif and co-chair the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue Ministerial with Pakistan’s Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz. This comes after some very strong statements that Aziz has made against India. He said that India was to blame for attacks on Pakistani soil from Afghanistan and also added that India’s involvement in terror activities had decreased after the adoption of a joint Pak-Afghan policy to not let their soils be used against each other.
The Pak-US strategic dialogue does not mean much unless it addresses the threat Pakistan faces from India, and its agents. However, Kerry has just come from India where he called Modi a visionary. While Pakistan is just a thorn in the side, India offers 500 billion dollars of business. This has allowed India to act like a bull in a China shop. The stance of the previous government was subtler, but the Modi-led government said that Pakistan needs to compromise on Kashmir. Sartaj Aziz is right; this is not acceptable. Everything cannot be on India’s terms.
Though the BJP strategy is that of sheer right wing hate and militant aggression, the rest of the India is also reacting sharply to an anti-terrorism court granting bail to the chief defendant on trial for the 2008 attack that killed 166 people in Mumbai. Though Lakhvi has since been rearrested, the black marks against Pakistan keep adding up. Pakistan has long been accused of playing a double game when it comes to dealing with militancy - fostering some militant groups that operate in Afghanistan and India as a way of maintaining influence there, while pursuing other militants who target the Pakistani state. But now it has Kerry and Modi on its back, and a fanatic Taliban parasite inside. Reposts suggest that Kerry will be making the case for improved trade and commercial ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a cooling of tensions with India. But too much cannot be expected.