India’s incessant gratuitous references to Pakistan in context of alleged ‘cross-border terrorism’ are nothing new. This tactic has been at the core of India’s foreign policy narrative viś-a-viś Pakistan – designed also to deflect attention from New Delhi’s own role in perpetrating state-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan and in the region and beyond. The recent India-United States Joint Leaders Statement once again repeated the familiar pattern. The Statement urged “Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.”[1]
Dragging Pakistan like this into the Joint Statement undermines Pakistan’s important role as a frontline ally in the U.S.-led ‘War on Terrorism,’ Pakistan’s own counter-terrorism initiatives as well as close cooperation with the international community on counter-terrorism. Having lost more than 80,000 human lives and incurred over $150 billion in economic losses, Pakistan has been one of the biggest victims of terrorism.[2] Pakistan seeks regional peace and stability; however, it remains concerned that the transfer of sophisticated weapon systems and provision of advanced military technology to India serve to not only create military imbalance but also increase the risk of inadvertent escalation in South Asia, while encouraging India’s belligerent posture towards Pakistan. The untrammeled military enablement of India by the U.S. in the hope of propping it up as a supposed ‘counterweight’ to China further complicates the regional situation. These dynamics create a peculiar environment where Pakistan’s cooperation with the U.S. on counter-terrorism is over-shadowed by India’s serial accusations, while U.S. military transfers to India keep on complicating the regional security landscape and accentuating Pakistan’s security challenges.
