AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 41IT IS THE new bromance. And, it
has already made headlines. The
first meeting between US President
Donald Trump and Pakistan Prime
Minister Imran Khan was a success.
Imran was forced to take the airport
bus on arrival and had his army chief
General Qamar Bajwa for a chaper-
on, but he managed to hit an unex-
pected six. With Trump offering to
mediate on Kashmir, suggesting that
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had
asked him to, Imran “took advantage
of Trump’s bottomless vanity”, and
dragged the US president further
into the mess, proving that he is as
wily a leader as he was a cricketer.
India has categorically refuted
Trump’s statement, with External
Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar issuing
a statement in Parliament. The une-
quivocal rebuttal came after the for-
eign ministry went through records
of the conversations Modi had with
the Americans, making it clear that
it was a classic Trump remark—high
on emotion, but not really based
on facts. The US administration,
meanwhile, went on a damage-con-
trol exercise by endorsing the Indian
line on Kashmir. “While Kashmir is
a bilateral issue for both parties to
discuss, the Trump administration
welcomes Pakistan and India sitting
down and the US stands ready to
assist,’’ read a tweet signed by Alice
Wells, the acting assistant secretary
of state for south and central Asian
affairs. Also, Kashmir was not men-
tioned in the White House readout
on the Trump-Imran meeting.
Kashmir, however, is likely to
loom large when Modi meets
Trump in September. For now, India
has chosen to handle the situation
quietly, choosing diplomacy over
hype. And, it seems to be working.
Eliot Engel, chairman of the US
House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs Committee, told Indian Am-
bassador Harsh Vardhan Shringla
that he supported dialogue between
India and Pakistan. “Pakistan must
first take concrete and irreversible
steps to dismantle the terrorist infra-
structure on Pakistan’s soil,’’ said a
statement put out by his office.
Harsh Pant, who heads the
strategic studies programme at the
Delhi-based Observer Research
Foundation, said Trump’s com-
ments on Kashmir would not cause
any lasting damage. “Every Amer-
ican president has felt inspired to
do something for Kashmir. Obama’s
first term was riddled with it. If Indiacould hold out when it was not as
powerful, it will not matter now,’’
said Pant.
Yet, it is important for India to
take note of the changing realities in
south Asia. For Trump, who is keen
to get out of Afghanistan before the
election season, Pakistani help is
critical. Trump might have called
Modi “beautiful man”, but while
dealing with Afghanistan, Imran is
his best bet. “Pakistan is going to
help us extricate ourselves [from
Afghanistan],’’ said Trump. Follow-
ing Imran’s visit to the White House,
Pakistan seems to be back in favour,
leaving India out in the cold. The
talks with the Taliban seem to be
working and the Americans hope
that by September, they will have a
plan to leave.
Ahead of Imran’s visit to the US,
the state department designated
the Balochistan Liberation Army as
a global terrorist group, signalling
that Pakistan was finally out of the
doghouse. Pakistan, too, took steps
aimed at improving its image, like
arresting Lashkar-e-Taiba chief
Hafiz Saeed and opening up its
airspace for flights from India. While
he was in the US, Imran spoke about
the possible release of Shakil Afridi,
the doctor who is in jail for allegedly
helping the CIA to establish Osama
bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad.
Imran said Afridi could be swapped
for Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neu-
rosurgeon who is in a US prison.
“India will have to live with this
pressure on the relationship in the
future,’’ said Rana Banerji, former
special secretary in the cabinet
secretariat. “We can deal with it in
two ways. One, by reaching out po-
litically to Kashmir in a better way.
We should also think of engaging
Pakistan.” This will be the biggest
challenge for India.
The biggest casualty of the Trump
remark on Kashmir could be the In-
dia-Pakistan relationship, which has
been limping back to a semblanceTWO TO TANGO
Imran Khan meets Donald Trump at
the White House on July 22