Joint gains from Afghan peace

MK Bhadrakumar, tribuneindia.com

Image from article, with caption: On same page: Consensus among major powers would be key to lasting peace.

The ‘big picture’ India can’t ignore

Excerpt:

If a timeline is needed, it could be mid-January when US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells and a three-member team of Taliban negotiators headed by Shahabuddin Dilawar landed in Islamabad for consultations simultaneously. Some evidence is available in the testimony last week in Washington by Gen Joseph Votel, Commander, US Central Command, before the House Armed Forces Committee that behind the cloud cover of nationalist rhetoric, Pakistani army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had begun “delivering”. Gen Votel noted, “Recently we have started to see an increase in communication, information sharing, and actions on the ground (by Pakistan) in response to our specific requests — these are positive indicators.”

The progress must have been appreciable because the Taliban switched to public diplomacy [JB emphasis] on February 14 with a letter of the Islamic Emirate to the American people, making a passionate appeal to the “logic and conscience” of the great American people that the Taliban “can solve its problems with every side through healthy politics and dialogue…and can play a constructive role”. On February 23, the Taliban reaffirmed this by welcoming as “good news” the commencement of work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Curiously, the Taliban claimed TAPI as its legacy — a pointed reminder of the Faustian deal between the Taliban regime and Unocal in the mid-90s with patronage from the Bill Clinton administration.

On February 26, the Taliban followed up with a formal proposal to hold direct talks with the US. Interestingly, this proposal coincided with the arrival in Islamabad of the Deputy Assistant to the US President and the National Security Council’s senior director for South and Central Asia, Lisa Curtis, on an overnight visit. According to the US embassy readout, Curtis expressed interest “to move toward a new relationship with Pakistan” and emphasised the “opportunity to work together”. ...