Security issues top foreign office agenda
Only a political dialogue between India and Pakistan could resolve political and military disputes between the two countries, a sentiment expressed by PM Imran Khan in Beijing when he said he was hoping for a “civilised dialogue” with India after its elections to resolve problems like Kashmir
In the midst of a heated election campaign. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale kept the foreign policy wheels moving, travelling to Beijing and thence to Berlin. In Beijing, Gokhale made another attempt to get China to remove its objections to listing the Pakistan-based Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohamed, as a UN-sanctioned terrorist. India, almost as quid pro quo, even offered to send an official representative for the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) if Beijing agreed to blacklist Azhar but, beyond saying they were close to resolution of the issue, China’s stance remained characteristically enigmatic. Meanwhile, the US, UK and France again moved the 1267 Sanctions Committee, trying to ensure that the UN takes a decision on listing Azhar, despite Chinese objections.
Gokhale’s China visit, which happened immediately after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings ripped Sri Lanka apart, imparted a sense of urgency to his appeal that Beijing should send a message that the global community was fighting terrorism together. Both China and India lost citizens in the Sri Lankan attacks.
But Beijing was more preoccupied with the BRF, at which Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan delivered the keynote address and, to New Delhi’s concern, said projects along the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, the showpiece of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, had been upgraded and expedited and pressed for more connectivity and tourism projects along the Corridor.. This will only worsen the security environment for India in the region.
Ibrahim Kalin, the Turkish President’s senior advisor, visited New Delhi to meet National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and share concerns on terrorism. Turkey, which avoided the BRF due to objections over China’s treatment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, has faced major terrorist attacks and also lost citizens in Sri Lanka, prompting Kalin to say there was need for everyone to work closely to “eradicate the ugly face of terrorism from earth.”
“Nobody can be safe unless the neighbourhood is also safe,” he reportedly said. India told Kalin it had shared timely, precise intelligence about the attacks with Colombo, but political tensions between Sri Lanka’s top leadership had allowed those inputs to fall between the gaps, resulting in the devastating bombings which rend Sri Lanka.
Kalin said terrorism is a big concern for Turkey and his President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had telephoned the prime ministers of India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack, urging them to maintain peace. He said only a political dialogue between India and Pakistan could resolve political and military disputes between the two countries, a sentiment expressed by PM Imran Khan in Beijing when he said he was hoping for a “civilised dialogue” with India after its elections to resolve problems like Kashmir.
In Berlin, Gokhale urged Germany to keep the pressure on China and also caution Islamabad against harbouring people like Azhar. Germany is a key player in the Afghan peace process and New Delhi hopes it will help India manage to retain its relevance in Afghanistan as the US-led peace talks, primarily with the Taliban and facilitated by Pakistan, move ahead. India plans to give the same message to Zalmay Khalilzad, US Special Envoy for Afghan Peace, when he swings by New Delhi early May for talks with Doval and Gokhale. India’s unease with prospects of a Taliban position in government in Kabul (and, by extension, an enhanced stature and role for Pakistan) will be strongly conveyed.
Gokhale is due to visit Dhaka on May 6 by special flight and leave on May 8. The purpose of the visit, in the middle of Indian national elections, is unclear but sources said he had been tasked with assuaging Dhaka’s concerns about the rhetoric surrounding the National Register of Citizens, threatening to expel Bangladeshis and illegal migrants, mostly Muslim. Gokhale’s Bangladesh counterpart Md Shahidul Haque flagged concerns on the issue when he visited New Delhi mid-April to campaign for his election to the post of deputy director general of the International Organisation for Migration.
Continuing security concerns led New Delhi to appoint former Army chief General (Retd.) Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next High Commissioner of India to the Seychelles, where India is building a naval base.