ISLAMABAD – US President Donald Trump’s comment on Pakistan during his”Namaste Trump” speech in Ahmedabad city on Monday has raised questions asto whether he will offer to mediate between India and Pakistan when hemeets Indian leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Dismissing the scope of an offer on mediation, Harsh Pant, Head of theStrategic Studies Programme at Delhi-based think tank Observer ResearchFoundation, says: “His comments about Pakistan were more aimed at theAfghanistan problem where they need Pakistan’s help as there are reports ofdeal being signed between the US and the Taliban on the 29 of this month.So he wants Pakistan to be in good humour.”
Over 100,000 Indian people went silent for a moment after Trump describedrelations with Islamabad as “good” and he went on to describe “bigprogress” made by Pakistan to combat terrorism. Trump also expressed hopefor a reduction in tensions, “greater stability and the future of harmonyfor all of the nations of South Asia”.
Noting that Trump also mentioned India and America working together onfighting Islamic extremism, Pant says that his comment was not aimed atmediation.
“I don’t think mediation is on the cards. His major priority isAfghanistan. He is in India for different reasons. He wants to go back tohis base and telling them that ‘look, I have withdrawn forces from Iraq andAfghanistanlink,’the promise that I made to you. His priority is to find way out ofAfghanistan and there he needs Pakistan,” Pant says.
It was evident from the beginning that Pakistan was at the centrestage of peacetalks with the Talibanlink,which aims to end the 20-year-old war in Afghanistan. Pakistan ForeignMinister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Saturday that the peace deal would besignedlinkinthe presence of Pakistan because it was quite impossible to deliver on itwithout Pakistan’s participation in the final agreement.
“Pakistan convinced the world to make efforts for a political solution tothe Afghan problem through dialogue. It was hard to convince Taliban forthe peace process, but Pakistan made them join the process,” Qureshi added.
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The peace process was suspended after Donald Trump fumed over the killingof 12 people, including an American soldier, in September 2019 ahead of acrucial meeting between the US President, Taliban leaders, and AfghanPresident Ashraf Ghani in Camp David. Pakistan made strong efforts torelease two abducted western hostages from the Taliban in November 2019 inorder to resume the dialogue once again.India’s Stake in Afghanistan
With India having high strategic stakes in Afghanistanlinkincludinginfrastructure development, the Indian side is expected to discuss thepossible implications of a US-Taliban Peace Deal on its $3 billioninvestment in civil infrastructure.
India will be raising the Afghanistan issue with Trump and trying tounderstand what Trump has in mind post withdrawal of troops, what kind ofposture America will have in the region, Pant said adding that there is aneed to understand Trump’s assessment of regional security after the UStroop withdrawal.
Commenting on relations between the Taliban and Pakistanlink,he said that both work in tandem in Afghanistan, which means that Indiawill have concerns about not only its own footprints in Afghanistan butalso about the future of Afghanistan itself. – Sputnik
