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Both countries have fought two major wars in 1965 and 1971 and near
nuclear confrontation in 1998. There were periodic cross-border tension
and Pakistan-supported infiltrations into India which often resulted in ter-
rorism, with 26 November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai being the dead-
liest one (Dwivedi 2008 ). In the wake of the Bangladesh War of 1971,
both concluded the Shimla Accord of 1972 whereby they agreed to resolve
the Kashmir dispute bilaterally, but this commitment has not inhibited
Pakistan from raising the issue in various international forums, especially
the OIC.
When India referred the Kashmir issue to the UN in December 1947,
the world body had 57 members, including eight (Egypt, Iran, Iraq,
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Yemen) from the Middle East.
The latter has been the prime focus and even constituency of Pakistan’s
foreign policy. As discussed elsewhere, the most visible manifestation of
this can be located in India’s attitude towards Israel (Kumaraswamy 2010 ,
167–70). Despite the absence of any bilateral problems or disputes, India
was wary of befriending the Jewish State lest Pakistan could capitalize on
it. Two of Nehru’s biographers—Brecher (1968b, 130) and Gopal ( 1980 ,
170)—identify Pakistan as one of the prime reasons for Nehru’s reluctance
to establish diplomatic relations with it. The potential ‘mischief ’ Pakistan
could play in the Middle East over the Indo-Israeli ties has been flagged
by others (Heptullah 1991 , 161–63; Srivastava 1992 ).
The Pakistani factor was also responsible for India agreeing to Israel’s
exclusion from the Bandung Conference of April 1955. As Nehru’s
confidant Krishna Menon told Michael Brecher, erstwhile Burma (now
Myanmar) was keen to invite Israel for the Afro-Asian meeting of inde-
pendent states and
[w]e said our position is the same but we have got to carry the Arabs with
us. We will do whatever the Conference (Bogor) agrees but we will vote for
an invitation to Israel. And we were three to two, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka),
Burma and India for, and Pakistan and Indonesia against; but Pakistan was
the leader. They made propaganda against us and issued leaflets terming us
a pro-Jewish country. (Brecher 1968a, 52)Likewise, in a controversial remark to a Mumbai-based weekly, in June
1982 Israeli Consul Youssef Hassain accused the Indian leaders of being
“afraid of Arabs, they are afraid that Iraq will cancel their contracts, Saudi
Arabia will stop accepting labourers ... India is always asking for floor at
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR