Supporters of Indo-Pak friendship at the Indo-Pak cricket match in Bangalore. Source: Frontline
The Indian magazine Frontline published an article on November 4 with the title "Why India Trusts the United States but Never Pakistan," pointing out that India's trust in the United States and its distrust of Pakistan stem from historical factors and realpolitik. However, for India, refusing to engage with Pakistan is more harmful than beneficial, and the two countries should maintain "continuous and uninterrupted dialogue." The author of this article, Mani Shankar Aiyar, is a former Indian diplomat and former member of the Indian Parliament from the Congress Party.
India's trust in the United States originated from the efforts of U.S. President Roosevelt and his envoy Louis Johnson, who pushed Britain to give up India. In 1949, then-Indian Prime Minister Nehru visited the United States, further solidifying Indo-U.S. relations. During the 1962 Sino-Indian War, the Kennedy administration quickly provided military aid to India, and in the mid-1960s, the U.S. provided food aid to India through the "Public Law 480" (PL 480), further strengthening the relationship between the two countries. After India's nuclear tests in 1998, the U.S. chose restraint, proactively offered to assist India in isolating its military and civilian nuclear programs, and cooperated with India in the civilian nuclear energy field, further consolidating the relationship. Although subsequent U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation has stalled, the overall relationship between the two countries has continued to develop. In recent years, with the rise of the Indian-American community in the U.S., and the good personal relationship between Modi and Trump, the "close relationship" between India and the U.S. has deepened further. Therefore, even after the Pargal Hamm attack and the "Operation Clean-up" incident, when Indo-U.S. relations cooled, and India was subjected to unwarranted criticism and insults from the Trump administration, India still maintains an optimistic outlook on its relationship with the U.S.
In contrast, India's distrust of Pakistan stems from the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the subsequent wars. Pakistan has consistently upheld the "two-nation theory" and regarded the Kashmir issue as its core demand, leading to a long-standing crisis of trust between the two countries.
However, India's trust in the United States is not without cracks. For India, the U.S. has repeatedly betrayed it, such as initially supporting India's position on the Kashmir issue, then turning to favor Pakistan, accusing India's non-alignment policy of being "immoral," providing arms aid to Pakistan under the pretext of countering the Soviet Union, and blocking India's assistance to Bangladesh's independence.
For India, it is necessary to restart contact with Pakistan for five reasons. First, indulging in past wounds does not solve current problems, but instead hinders the peace process. Second, cutting off dialogue with Pakistan has not effectively curbed cross-border terrorism, but rather complicated the situation. Third, lack of contact means ignoring the goodwill existing in Pakistani society towards India, while providing space for hostile forces to expand their influence. Fourth, if India resorts to bullying behavior against Pakistan under the excuse of grievances, it will only lose moral support on the international stage, failing to gain respect and trust. Fifth, if India constantly boasts about its superiority over Pakistan, it will push Pakistan to seek external support from countries like China and the United States under strategic weakness. It is worth noting that most Indians believe that as long as Pakistan is led by the military, India should not engage with it. However, in fact, India has made several agreements with Pakistan's military government, and the civilian government in Pakistan has not only failed to reach effective consensus with India, but often faces the risk of being overthrown by the military.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7569660883333300755/
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