{"id":30839,"date":"2018-10-27T11:04:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T05:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=30839"},"modified":"2018-10-27T11:04:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T05:34:54","slug":"its-time-to-reimagine-south-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/its-time-to-reimagine-south-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time to reimagine South Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/its-time-to-reimagine-south-asia\/article22938048.ece\"><b>It\u2019s time to reimagine South Asia<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India-China-Pakistan cooperation can transform the situation in South Asia<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Examples showing how India and Pakistan, which were part of a single socio-economic and cultural entity before 1947, have now completely drifted apart:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are no direct flights between New Delhi and Islamabad.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The frequency of Delhi-Lahore and Mumbai-Karachi flights has become minimal. T<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Mumbai-Karachi ferry service was stopped after the 1965 war.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number of phone calls between Indian and Pakistani citizens (including calls between close relatives of divided families) is negligible. This is mostly out of fear of being questioned by their respective security agencies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At less than $3 billion annually, trade with Pakistan accounts for a meagre 0.4% of India\u2019s growing global commerce.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The China Factor:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">China has become a new factor influencing India\u2019s negative attitude towards Pakistan<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This has been the case for both policy makers and common people<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How can China become a part of the solution, rather than being perceived as a part of the India-Pakistan problem?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A three-way India-China-Pakistan cooperation is the only and necessary solution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>How can this be achieved?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> provides a practical framework for such partnership<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, India is opposed to BRI<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>On what ground is this opposition based?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government\u2019s opposition to the BRI is based, among other things, on the argument that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under the BRI, violates India\u2019s sovereignty since it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Does this argument have a strong base?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i>No<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Why?<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CPEC does not recognise PoK to be Pakistan\u2019s sovereign territory. Article VI in the 1963 China-Pakistan boundary agreement clearly states in that \u201cafter the settlement of the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India, the sovereign authority concerned will reopen negotiations with the Government of the People\u2019s Republic of China&#8230;.\u201d <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is little possibility of India ever getting PoK, or Pakistan ever getting the Indian side of Kashmir, through war or by any other means. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both China and Pakistan have stated that they are open to India joining CPEC. China has also expressed its readiness to rename CPEC suitably to both address India\u2019s concerns and to reflect the project\u2019s expanded regional scope<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>How will India benefit if it joins CPEC?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India would gain land access, through Pakistan, to Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia and western China.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>How is CPEC beneficial for entire South-Asia?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The CPEC-plus-India can be linked to the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Corridor, thus creating a grand garland of connectivity and integration for the whole of South Asia<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposed connectivity initiative, which would create strong new bonds of regional cooperation and interdependence, could also help resolve three long-standing geopolitical problems in the region, \u2014 terrorism, Kashmir and Afghanistan.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way Ahead:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The BRI provides an opportunity for India, Pakistan and all other countries in the region to come together and rise in shared progress and prosperity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its high-time for India and Pakistan to foster regional cooperation and not rivalry<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s time to reimagine South Asia Context: India-China-Pakistan cooperation can transform the situation in South Asia Examples showing how India and Pakistan, which were part of a single socio-economic and cultural entity before 1947, have now completely drifted apart: There are no direct flights between New Delhi and Islamabad. The frequency of Delhi-Lahore and Mumbai-Karachi&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/its-time-to-reimagine-south-asia\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">It\u2019s time to reimagine South Asia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704896013},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}