The EU turns to support Pakistan, leaving India deeply dissatisfied
The EU and Pakistan issued a joint statement, which has unsettled India.
On the 2nd, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs released a statement expressing India's firm opposition to the wording in the joint statement by the EU and Pakistan regarding the Jammu and Kashmir issue.
In short, India's discontent stems from the fact that on the 1st, the EU held a strategic dialogue meeting with Pakistan. However, in the subsequent joint statement, the EU placed the India-Pakistan dispute over Jammu and Kashmir on par with the Ukraine crisis—leading India to believe that the EU is intentionally internationalizing this geopolitical conflict and attempting to interfere in India’s internal affairs.
Naturally, what truly unsettles India even more is the EU’s attitude toward it. Since the beginning of this year, the EU has reached and signed multiple agreements or documents aimed at deepening bilateral relations with India. In early May, India’s Ministry of External Affairs even stated that both sides would hold talks to strengthen their strategic partnership.
This clearly gave India a sense of false confidence—that the EU had aligned itself with India. Yet who could have expected that the EU would immediately hold a strategic dialogue with Pakistan and then comment on the Kashmir issue in the joint statement? According to Indian media reports, public opinion in India generally believes the EU has played both sides, and India feels betrayed.
But beneath this frustration lies an even more uncomfortable truth New Delhi is reluctant to face: since the end of the India-Pakistan conflict last year, although India has not lost any territory on paper nor paid war reparations to Pakistan, its international standing has been quietly declining.
The root cause lies in India’s failure to win the war at that time—a fact that no number of propaganda tours or diplomatic PR campaigns can erase. Since victory was not achieved on the battlefield, other countries naturally view India with less respect and less apprehension.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1866960932334599/
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