India’s diplomacy at work as Pak allies go silent on strikes
Beijing maintains restrained response; Kabul backs India; Islamabad says will defer Saarc meet
NEW DELHI: India’s diplomatic encirclement of Pakistan appeared to bear fruit on Friday, with even Islamabad’s traditional allies refusing to take its side over New Delhi’s surgical strikes on militant shelters across the Line of Control (LoC), their de-facto border.
While the United States, a long presence in Pakistan’s corner, hastened to underline the importance of its alliance with India, others who could previously have been relied upon to take Islamabad’s side, at least in rhetorical terms, chose to maintain a studiously neutral line.
In South Asia, Pakistan’s isolation deepened as Afghanistan openly backed Thursday’s strikes as an act of “self-defence”, and Sri Lanka became the fifth country to pull out of the eight-nation Saarc Summit in Islamabad, citing concerns about terrorism – an unsubtle reference to Pakistan.
But perhaps China’s markedly restrained reaction comes most fraught for its “all-weather ally”. Neither did any voice of support ring out of the Organisation of Islamic Countries that has traditionally backed Islamabad’s stand on Kashmir.
Russia, despite currently conducting military exercises with Islamabad, joined South Korea to speak out against terrorism and call on Pakistan to do more to fight the menace on its soil.
And in what reflected growing global impatience with Pakistan’s
self-defeating stand on fighting terrorism, Washington chose the moment to focus on the dangers of such policies in South Asia.
“We’ve repeatedly expressed our concerns regarding the danger
that terrorism poses to the region and we all know that terrorism in many ways knows no border,” said State Department Spokesman, John Kirby.
The reply came to a question
on the surgical strikes that New Delhi said took out seven militant “launchpads” across the LoC and inflicted heavy casualties on militants.
For that matter, Washington
also used the occasion to underscore a new high in ties with India, with Defence Secretary Ashton Carter saying their military relationship was the “closest it has been ever”.
Islamabad, which deferred the Saarc Summit on Friday, would have probably wanted Beijing to be more vocal about the strikes. But then again, Pakistan has denied those took place.
China’s reaction to the strikes came two days after Pakistan dispatched two special envoys on Kashmir to Beijing to drum up support for its position.