China again placed a hold on the listing request for Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)’s leader Masood Azhar at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The JeM has carried out many terrorist attacks on Indian soil with the most recent being Pulwama attack where more than 40 jawans were martyred.

Body:

• Terror from across the north-western borders:
  • Terrorism emanating from Pakistan and the China-Pakistan axis working against India are two of the major geo-political challenges facing the country.
  • The increasing terror attacks on Indian military forces bases like the Pathankot air force station in Punjab and the Indian army’s garrison in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir is guided from the terrorist base camps set up in the PoK region.
  • Other geo-political challenges to India include the uncertainty around the incoming Donald Trump-led US administration’s policies vis-a-vis China, Pakistan and India.
  • Pakistan is devolving into a lesser challenge given that it was a “derived power”, that is most of its heft – economic and political – is derived from China.
• China’s support to Pakistan:
  • Pakistan has been given military and nuclear arms support by China in the past besides economic support.
  • With the major investment in terms of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor being announced, China is only underlining its support for Pakistan.
  • China is supplanting the US as the biggest supporter of Pakistan.
  • China has also been making inroads into India’s neighbourhood like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka besides the Maldives, with investments.
  • Beijing’s increasing cooperation with Russia, seen as a stalwart partner of India till recently is also a concern to India.
• India-Pakistan relations:
  • The bilateral relations between India and Pakistan has hit rock-bottom with India denying talks until Pakistan state stops state-sponsored terrorism.
  • The recent moves of India to cancel MFN Status to Pakistan and impose duties upto 200% have virtually choked the economic ties too.
  • Bilateral relations stalled in 2016 following the Pathankot and Uri attacks.
  • The inaction of Pakistan towards the non-state actors on its soil has further added to the mistrust between neighbours.
  • With the rampant use of high calibre weapons such as mortars and even artillery in the borders in Jammu and Kashmir, civilian casualties and the destruction of their habitats have risen steadily.
  • Pakistan has violated the ceasefire over 600 times so far this year, the highest in the last one decade.
  • In September 2016, India launched ‘surgical strikes’ as retaliation for the Uri attack but this has not reduced infiltration.

Way forward:

• Managing the discontent and law and order problems in Kashmir, would give Pakistan less scope to interfere and cause problems.
• India should seek global co-operation in cornering Pakistan and forcing it to take action against terror breeding grounds. Moves from FATF to blacklist Pakistan, USA’s wrap against misuse of F-16s etc.
• India should use its bilateral goodwill with other permanent members in the UNSC to push China to blacklist Mazood Azhar.
• The India-China dialogue which has terror on board should be used to explain and convince China to stop vetoing the proposal.
• Other common forums like BRICS, SCO where China is also a member-partner should be used to put pressure on China to act against Global Terrorism.
• This must be bolstered with Dialogues at the highest level to track 2 diplomacies with Pakistan
• More avenues for people to people contact need to be encouraged between India and Pak.

Conclusion:

There is a need to embrace an overarching strategic stability regime and to shun aggressive security doctrines to reduce the possibility of a nuclear conflict. The problems of terrorism and Non-State Actors need to be addressed jointly through institutionalised mechanisms. Indeed, India should focus on a different type of a surgical strike; it’s a strike that could push Pakistan out of its terror past and military dependency.