The Xiamen BRICS declaration is being talked about a lot in Indian and Pakistani media circles owing to the condemnation clauseconcerning certain militant groups such as Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT). Indian diplomatic circles claim that it’s a huge victory for them, as for the first time their concerns were made part of the BRICS declaration. However, this is just a narrow angle of a larger picture owing to the inclusion of several other groups such the Pakistani Taliban(TTP)that have been responsible for dastardly attacks across Pakistan.It must be kept in mind that Pakistan has concerns regarding New Delhi’s possible connection with TTP’s funding and logistics. Hence, TTP’s inclusion should be taken in a positive light.
The Foreign Office has unsurprisinglystated that Pakistan is in fact deeply committed to root out the menace of terrorism with several operations carried out in past few years that have resulted in an overall increased sense of security. It is pertinent to mention that groups such as JeM and LeT are already banned to carry out their activities with former ambassador Abdul Basitrightly stating that there was nothing new in the declaration and India’s jubilation is bizarre. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has acknowledged that such groups have been problematic in the past owing to strategic blunders being committed during the onset of the Soviet-Afghan War.
However, it must be realised that these groups have been contained to such an extent they remain in name only. Moreover, Defence Minister KhurramDastgir’s statement was also noteworthy for he was of the opinion that Afghanistan is the actual den of terrorism while claiming that no terrorist safe haven operates out of Pakistan. This is quite true given how the Afghans have failed to secure their own territory and even carried out state-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan.
Times have changed a lot and New Delhi must realise that this so-called diplomatic victory in Xiamen is minuscule and futile given how Pakistan has evolved over the years to contain the mistakes of certain past rulers. With new geostrategic alliances emerging, Pakistan’s foreign policy is heading towards the right course of direction. Those claiming that Pakistan’s foreign policy has failed have perhaps quite a narrow view of how diplomacy works. When Donald Trump announced his counterproductive and ill-conceived Afghan policy just last month, it was Pakistan’s strategic and close allies such as Turkey and China that lent their full support to the country. Not only this, Russia and Iran also condemned Washington DC’s arm twisting policy towards Islamabad.
The FM’s upcoming visits to certain key Asian capitals and the ongoing envoys conference should give a clear signal to detractors and sceptics that Pakistan shall neither be bullied nor would it tolerate any kind of terrorism being committed against itself or neighbouring states for the ultimate goal is prosperity, peace and economic growth. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone following diplomatic affairs with deep insight.
The writer is Tactical Talk Network’s special correspondent and geopolitical analyst for Business Plus. He can be reached at hassankhan440@gmail.com and tweets @mhassankhan06
Published in Daily Times, September 7th 2017.
