Using the Indo-Pacific platform to corner Pakistan – Firstpost

This week when the Quad foreign ministers met in Washington DC, the world was grappling with multiple conflicts. Among the usual concerns over China’s continued belligerence in the South China Sea, what stood out was the Pahalgam terror attack where the ministers not only issued a strong condemnation of the attack that claimed lives of 26 Indians in April this year but also emphasised the need for zero tolerance for terrorism, calling for swift justice against the perpetrators, organisers and financiers of such acts.

The joint statement issued at the end of the meet renewed the member countries’ commitment to counterterrorism cooperation. It also highlighted how Quad would strive to remain one of the leading platforms for dealing with the challenge of terrorism in the Indo-Pacific.

For other Quad countries, terrorism in the region may not be that big a nuisance but India continues to remain one of the biggest victims of terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil. It was quite a sight to behold when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar lashed out at Pakistan for being a state sponsor of terrorism at the meet, while his counterparts from the United States, Japan and Australia stood firmly behind on the stage in rapt attention.

Jaishankar minced no words when he iterated that India’s Operation Sindoor has conveyed with great clarity to the world that the country will act against “the perpetrators, the supporters, the financiers and the enablers” where it has the “right to defend” itself against all acts of terrorism. Additionally, while inaugurating an exhibition to highlight the human cost of terrorism at the UN headquarters in New York during his US tour, Jaishankar again sent a loud message that India would not let the terrorists go unpunished, and there would be no scope for nuclear blackmail or treatment of terrorists as mere proxies.

The stand that India took during the Quad foreign ministers’ meet is part of a larger diplomatic strategy of the Modi government to leverage the forum to highlight its own security concerns with regards to terror emanating from Pakistan. Quad which remains one of the foremost platforms to address geopolitical challenges arising from China’s aggressive rise and its manifestation in the maritime domain needs to recognise the fact that for any effective and meaningful security cooperation to tackle China, it is necessary to address its use of Pakistan and its terror complex to weaken India, a key Quad country. The terror industry that is operating from Rawalpindi HQ has the blessings and the backing from Beijing where China is leaving no stone unturned to use Pakistan to balance India in the region.

China Feeding Off Pakistan’s Terror Factories

In recent years, China’s tacit support to Pakistan’s terror industry has become a serious issue of concern for India. If during the cold war, Pakistan had leased its territory to the West by setting up radicalisation camps to offset Soviet influence in the region, today it is willingly doing the bidding for Beijing’s strategic goals. This was wide on display during Operation Sindoor when Pakistan first orchestrated the Pahalgam terror attack to challenge the narrative of normalcy in Kashmir and then used key military technology provided by the Chinese to defend itself.

China’s support to such rampant terror activities in Kashmir is part of its own toolkit to keep India destabilised, a key reason why it also took a strong position on repeal of Article 370 and went on to assert that its claims in Ladakh remain unchanged.

What is also necessary to note is China’s overt support to terrorists in the region. In the last few years, China has vetoed India’s attempts to designate terrorists backed by Pakistan as ‘global terrorists’ at the UN. We can’t forget how China has repeatedly shielded Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists at the UNSC who have carried out serious terror attacks against India.

In fact, India’s attempts to seek sanctions against The Resistance Front, a Lashkar offshoot and the mastermind organisation behind Pahalgam attack have also hit a road-block at the UNSC due to the usual Chinese designs. Ironically, China itself has become a victim of the radicalisation in Pakistan where many Chinese nationals have also lost their lives while executing the CPEC project. Yet China continues to firmly back Pakistan’s strategy of being a state-sponsor of terrorism against India.

Getting Around West’s Hypocrisy

The fact that China is the foremost backer of Pakistan and its terror industry is not lost on anyone. After all, the nuclear blackmail card that Pakistan often plays on the world, the very moment India starts retaliating to its terror activities, is itself a gift from China to Pakistan. China not only supplied key nuclear technology and enriched Uranium to Pakistan during the cold war but it also continues to back its nuclear program till today by supplying nuclear reactors with dual-use technology. There are frequent reports of Pakistan seeking to extract a handsome price for the Gwadar port access to China which along with other ports has made China a key part of the security calculus in the Indian Ocean region.

While China has deeply embedded itself in the maritime domain of the Indian Ocean region using Pakistan as strategic footboard, the West is still behaving like an ostrich by not recognising how the Pakistan-China axis is a threat to its own security in the long-run. This is because the anti-India terror factories that operate from the Pakistani soil are firmly backed by Beijing. The cost of dealing with this challenge for India, a key Quad partner is very high in both logistics and financial terms. The precious energy that India can spend in countering China’s rise and thus ease off some pressure from other Quad partners’ back is spent on dealing with a rogue state like Pakistan.

It is not only unfortunate but deeply troubling that the same West. especially the United States. which sings the peans of solidarity against China at forums like Quad, does not shy away from still keeping its old ties with Pakistan alive. This was on display even during Operation Sindoor when Trump not only equated India, a victim of terrorism with its perpetrator Pakistan but also sought to use trade as a ploy to get India to tolerate terror attacks planned against it by Pakistan.

On one hand, the United States expects support from India to counter China, its systemic rival and on the other hand it still backs Pakistan and expects India to not take the terrorism challenge seriously. The Modi government’s efforts to highlight Pakistan’s state sponsorship of terrorism at the Quad meet is laudable. One may say that it is a good step towards drawing attention to how Pakistan is nothing but a proxy for China itself in keeping India along with other Quad countries on tenterhooks. Now the ball is in the West’s court to recognise this aspect and stop backing Pakistan in its own interest.

The author is a New Delhi-based commentator on geopolitics and foreign policy. She holds a PhD from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. She tweets @TrulyMonica. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.