ISLAMABAD: The potentially scariest confrontation in the world may lie between India and Pakistan, two hostile, trigger-happy, and heavily-nuclear-armed nations. Recently, the White House and the Defence Department, hoping for a counterweight against China, hit the accelerator pedal on military and nuclear cooperation with India. This embrace of Modi may inflame India-Pakistan armed tensions, Forbes reported. Just for context about tension, India and Pakistan have fought four major wars since independence. They have a tense armed confrontation over Kashmir. In 2008, an alleged Pakistan-based terrorist group unleashed a murderous assault on Mumbai seen as “India’s 9/11.” Narendra Modi, the strong Indian Prime Minister elected a year ago, leads the BJP party of Hindu nationalists, antagonistic on many grounds towards its Islamic neighbour. Modi and the BJP have said numerous things suggesting combative attitudes towards Pakistan, although as prime minister, Modi has kept commendably calm. Nuclear confrontation? Oh, yes. A report this week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said “India and Pakistan are both expanding their nuclear weapon production capabilities as well as their missile delivery capabilities.” The institute estimates that India has between 90 and 110 nuclear warheads, and Pakistan has between 100 and 120 — levels on the order of the United Kingdom. The Obama administration cooperates with India in large measure from hope for collaboration with India to contain China’s military buildup and aggressive moves. President Obama has gone twice to India, and forged a strong tie with Modi. Those ties expand at the level of the Secretary of Defence, Ashton Carter, and further down at the level of the procurement undersecretary, Frank Kendall. But that does not mean Pakistan will look on the India-US cooperation as benign. On the contrary, something of an opposing set of alliances is shaping up. A little-mentioned aspect of this has been China’s overt and covert support to the Pakistani defence buildup, aimed at India through supply of submarines, JF-17 fighters, and strategic inroads in sensitive parts of Kashmir. In other words, China is helping Pakistani on sea, air, and land, just as the US helps India.
