Session at ISSI: ‘India may use certain foreign policy issues against Pakistan’

ISLAMABAD: “India may use certain foreign policy issues against Pakistan for domestic political gains, especially in the run-up to elections — key states polls in 2023 and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.”

This was the consensus of an in-house session, organised by the India Study Centre (ISC) at the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISSI), focussing on “Recent Trends in Indian Foreign Policy.”

The session was attended by practitioners, former diplomats, academics, scholars and researchers affiliated with thinktanks, including Ambassador Zamir Akram; Ambassador Masood Khalid; Ambassador Asif Durrani; Ilayas Mehmood Nizami, Director General (SA & SAARC); Dr Asma Shakir Khawaja, CISS, AJK; Dr Salma Malik, QAU; Dr Altaf Hussain Wani, KIIA; Humera Iqbal, IRS; and Nurul Ain from IPRI.

Participants from the ISSI included DG Ambassador Sohail Mahmood and Director and members of the India Study Centre.

The participants advised Pakistan to be vigilant as India goes through a slew of key state elections in 2023 and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

They covered a wide range of themes, including continuity and change in Indian foreign policy; traditional and new drivers of Indian foreign and security policies; the impact of the Indian economy and its present growth trajectory; the relevance and efficacy of “strategic autonomy” in the current context; India’s quest for “major power” status; New Delhi’s posture and positioning in the great-power competition; the status of “Neighbourhood First” policy and gaps in regional engagement; slackening of commitment to multilateralism and drift towards “mini-lateralism”; continued intransigence in peacefully resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute; and stalling of the SAARC process for regional cooperation.

The pursuit of “Hindutva” ideology in the internal and external dimensions also assessed and its implications for regional peace and security were evaluated.

Besides this ideological drift, the participants highlighted the propensity in India to use certain foreign policy issues for domestic political gains, especially in the run-up to elections.

They advised that Pakistan should be vigilant as India goes through a slew of key state elections in 2023 and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

Ambassador Khalid Mahmood, Chairman BoG of ISSI, made the concluding remarks and thanked the participants for sharing their thoughts.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023