Experts call for comprehensive strategy to deal with aftermath of India-US agreements

Islamabad
Experts have called on the government to carefully work out a strategy to deal with the aftermath of India-United States agreements on defence, space and nuclear cooperation.
The experts on foreign affairs and nuclear issues were speaking at the second session of a seminar organised by the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), Islamabad, for discussing the implications of US President Obama's visit to India for attending the Republic Day ceremony, says a press release.
Former ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi said Pakistan needed to urgently address issues of immediate concern like extremism and sense of deprivation and alienation among the masses. He opined that these much-needed actions should not be meant for appeasing some foreign power, but addressing the basic problems in the country.
“We need not worry about India's growing relationship with the United States as long as our foreign policy is operational and rational and our image abroad in not worrisome,” he stressed.
He feared that remaining perpetually locked into a zero-sum game with India could distract the country from its larger long-term economic plan.
Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) President Ambassador (r) Sohail Amin believed that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was primarily pursuing an economic agenda as he sought to build stronger relationships with big world powers. He recalled visits by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to Delhi over the past few months -- both of whom signed major agreements with India.
“Modi feels that bigger threat to his position is internal from Sangh Parivar than external. Therefore, he would continue to work with all major powers for the achievement of his economic agenda,” Amin said.
He said though Indian government immediately decided to dispatch External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Beijing for explaining its position on reinvigorated ties with US, but still China will warily watch the implementation of agreements signed during President Obama's visit.
Amin said China in this situation would like to solidify its relationship with Pakistan and at the minimum would like to see the completion of economic corridor within stipulated time (in 2017).
Brigadier (r) Naeem Salik, a nuclear expert and a fellow at Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS), said the US agreements generated lot of debate in Pakistan, but everyone seems to have missed out the 10 reactors President Putin promised to India during his visit there.
America, Salik said, was the lesser beneficiary in the elevated strategic partnership with India.
Besides, the breakthrough in nuclear agreement, he said, it was important to watch out the accords signed for cooperation in space and high technologies. These agreements, he said, would help India build its missile capability.
Cooperation on Ballistic Missile Defense, Salik feared, could give India the psychological comfort that could lead to temptations of first strike.
SVI President Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said the Indo-US agreements on military sales and co-production of state of the art weapons system would seriously further erode the already highly asymmetric conventional military balance; intensify India's existing aggressive military posture on LoC/Working Boundary; and harden its position on bilateral disputes with Pakistan.
Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz, who spoke in the first session on Thursday, had feared that the US agreements could stoke arms race in the region. He had called on US and other Western countries to support the objective of strategic stability in South Asia.