January 21, 2015
western neighbour is struggling to cope with a deepening crisis at home and mounting challenges on its western frontiers.
Many in Delhi and Washington will instinctively resist the construction of such a dialogue. After all, it has never been done before. The fact, however, is that both countries have a big stake in Pakistan’s stability. But neither America nor India is in a position to unilaterally shape the future of Pakistan. Working together might give them a slim chance of influencing outcomes in Pakistan, one of the world’s pivotal nations.
Delhi’s Region
India’s wariness of America’s regional policies was not limited to Pakistan. As political trust diminished between India and the US during the Cold War, Delhi became increasingly suspicious of the American role in its neighbourhood and sought to limit it in the subcontinent.
It was Bush who once more broke the mould of the US policy. He ordered a substantive dialogue with India on regional issues and was quite happy to let India take the lead in the subcontinent beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan. Delhi too began to shed its reluctance to work with America in the neighbourhood. Recall that it was Delhi that drew the US as an observer into Saarc when Pakistan was pushing for a larger Chinese role in the regional forum in 2005.
In the last few years, Delhi and Washington seemed to slip back to the old habit of working at cross-purposes in the region. Amidst their effort to revitalise the partnership, Modi and Obama must initiate a high-level regional dialogue for sustained political consultation and policy coordination between Delhi and Washington in the region. The apparent cooperation between Delhi and Washington in supporting an orderly transfer of power in the recent presidential elections in Sri Lanka may provide a valuable precedent for future joint efforts to promote political stability and regional economic integration in the subcontinent.
The writer is a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and a contributing editor for ‘The Indian Express’
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