(This article forms a part of the View From India newsletter curated by The Hindu’s foreign affairs experts. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Monday, subscribe here.)
The recent, heated exchange between India and Pakistan at the UN Security Council, going beyond the theatrics, is a stark reflection of how bitter the two countries’ relations are, and how hard it might be for the tensions to thaw. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar described Pakistan as the “epicentre of terrorism”, and Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari responded later, saying: “Osama bin Laden is dead. But the butcher of Gujarat lives, and he is the Prime Minister of India.”
Pakistan also said it was distributing a new “dossier” on terrorism to UNSC members that alleges Indian agencies were involved in “masterminding” a 2021 blast near Hafiz Saeed’s home in Lahore.
While the remarks of the foreign ministers overshadowed the core message of the forum, about taking on global terrorism, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s listing of four hurdles to better counterterrorism cooperation — state support for financing terror; multilateral mechanisms that are opaque and agenda driven; double standards and politicisation of countering terrorism according to where terror groups belong, and the “next frontier” (the use of emerging technologies such as drones and virtual currency by terrorists), needs attention, The Hindu Editorial said.
Meanwhile, in the latest escalation in border tensions, Indian and Chinese soldiers suffered “minor injuries” after they were engaged in a face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, the Indian Army said. This is the first incident of its kind after the June 15, 2020 incident when 20 Indian soldiers were killed and several others were injured in violent clashes with the PLA troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, Vijaita Singh and Dinakar Peri report.
A file photo shows the Indian Army personnel carrying out drills near the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Chinese military defended its actions in the Yangtse area of Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh and blamed India for triggering the December 9 clash by “illegally crossing” the LAC. The development has underlined the growing risks of “strategic miscalculation” along the border, a former senior Indian official said on Tuesday, with China’s increasingly aggressive posture wrongly discounting India’s willingness to respond, Ananth Krishnan writes from Beijing. The attempted transgression by the Chinese military is a “warning sign”, The Hindu Editorial said, arguing that “India cannot wish away the situation on the Chinese border by staying silent”.
The Top Five
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London.
- In exile and always dreaming of home: There is nothing as haunted and powerless as a leader who has lost their land and their people, writes Suhasini Haidar.
- Dangerous gamble: Turkey should not use its geopolitical advantage to crush Syrian Kurds, The Hindu Editorial observed on Turkey’s attacks on Syrian Kurds.
- Why Tawang matters: International affairs expert Sonia Trikha Shukla writes on understanding its people, its geography, and its vital place in the history of India-China engagement over the past century.
- Iran at a political crossroads: While there could be small steps towards change, especially where women are concerned, the core of the Iranian order is likely to endure, writes Talmiz Ahmad.
- It is anyone’s game on Messi’s big night: The pressure of carrying Argentina to victory has weighed heavily on Lionel Messi so often in his career. This time he seems to have found a balance between fortitude and joy, writes Suhrith Parthasarathy on the eve of the World Cup final, which Messi’s Argentina won.
