The Kashmir narrative seems to be coming back to the Western world. First, US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome grabbed the headlines for visiting Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and calling the Indian territory “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”. He even tweeted, “The Quaid-e-Azam Memorial Dak Bungalow symbolises the cultural and historical richness of Pakistan and was famously visited by Jinnah in 1944. I’m honoured to visit during my first trip to AJK.”
And now, the German Foreign Minister called for a UN intervention in Kashmir. Had this been the Cold War era, the Western reactions would have been easy to understand. India was then seen as somewhat antagonistic towards the West and Pakistan used to be close to it. But it’s a matter of surprise that the West is gradually bringing the Kashmir narrative back on its agenda at a time when India is ramping up its global influence and Kashmir itself is moving towards normalcy post abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
Pushing the West towards reviving the Kashmir agenda could however be Europe’s injured pride and a compulsion to keep Pakistan in good books out of sheer self-interest. In any case, the trans-Atlantic world seems to be grappling with the sudden erosion of its influence.
The injured pride
From a Western point of view, everything boils down to the embarrassment that the EU and the US had to face over the Ukraine crisis. While the Russo-centric behaviour of the trans-Atlantic world may not be strategically coherent, the fact remains that American and European strategists have been investing a lot of political and diplomatic capital to turn the tide against Moscow.
In fact, when the Ukraine crisis started, the Western thinkers seemed to assume that India won’t exercise its strategic autonomy and take its own line. But while India and the West today have a lot in common, New Delhi reserves the right to voice its own opinions and calculate its own interests in the ongoing geopolitical realignment. This may have come as a shock for European and American policy makers.
So, if German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock suddenly calls for the “engagement of the United Nations”, it may as well mean that the Western world is trying to find something to get back at India. And after all, taking the Kashmir issue and seemingly backing Pakistan’s agenda is quite convenient for the lobbies in the West that were taken aback by India’s independent position over the Ukraine issue.
It is, of course, an imprudent move. While India had only taken a neutral view over an issue involving third parties, Germany and the US have actually ended up making New Delhi apprehensive about its own interests with their words and actions.
Resurgence of Pakistan-West bonhomie
While the West is seemingly trying to settle scores with India, it could be once again playing into Islamabad’s hands, yet again.
It is not lost on anyone that Baerlock’s Kashmir jibe came during a press conference alongside Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. So, Pakistan seems to have some leverage over Berlin. Moreover, it is quite likely that Germany is concerned about its interests in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan during the US-led occupation of the war-torn country over the past two decades.
Afghanistan, being a landlocked country with Iran on its West, the German government may be looking for Pakistani assistance in creating a safe passage for its interests. For Berlin, this also serves the purpose of needling India and recalibrating its Afghanistan strategy at the same time.
Therefore, the resurgence of Pakistan-West bonhomie has Islamabad’s vote bank politics, Europe’s injured pride and the Western world’s compulsions written all over it.
New Delhi’s sharp rebuttal
Germany’s loose remarks over Kashmir triggered a sharp rebuttal from India. In a strongly-worded statement, the Indian side reminded Berlin and the world that the UNSC and the FATF “are still pursuing Pakistan-based terrorists involved in the horrific 26/11 attacks”.
The MEA statement further read, “When states do not recognise such dangers, either because of self-interest or indifference, they undermine the cause of peace, not promote it. They also do grave injustice to the victims of terrorism.” It added, “All serious and conscientious members of the global community have a role and responsibility to call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature.”
For Germany, India’s statement should come as a reality check. It might as well reassess the risk it has taken by annoying the fast-emerging Indo-Pacific power. This is the emerging multi-polar world where the partners of the Western world don’t feel obliged to act as a NATO extension when Russia and Ukraine cross swords with each other. Nor does a rising global power like India feel the need of appeasing the West to curtail loose remarks affecting its territorial sovereignty.
And where is it placing its bets, after all? The West had trusted the Taliban after the 9/11 attack but we all know what it led to. It shouldn’t re-enact the same story all over again for its own sake.
While India’s strategic autonomy may be a hard pill to swallow for the West and its pride may have been injured over the Ukraine crisis, there is no strategic gain for the West in making loose remarks that could hurt its goodwill in New Delhi.
Akshay Narang is a columnist who writes on national and international affairs. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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