Tactless diplomacy
UK Prime Minister David Cameron is in India at the invitation of Manmohan Singh, his Indian counterpart.
With him is the largest delegation of British officials ever to visit the country — ministers, politicians, businessmen, scientists, academics and others — because Cameron wants to create a new special relationship between the two countries that is as much as economic as political. He has said all the wrong things to make it happen.
In Bangalore on Wednesday, he accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism to India and Afghanistan and that it was intolerable that it should be allowed to “look both ways”. Coming just days after leaked US government reports accused Pakistan’s intelligence services of supporting the Taleban in Afghanistan, it is clear that Cameron believes the Americans. Thursday, he was in the same frame of mind saying that while that his accusation was not directed specifically at the Pakistani government and that it had made progress in cracking down terrorists, it was not acceptable to have terrorists being supported in Pakistan and that Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani’s government had to do much more to destroy them.
This is astounding language. To accuse Pakistan so publicly is one thing but to accuse while on the soil of its archenemy is infinitely worse. It has to have been deliberate. Cameron was well aware of the terminological minefield that exists for careless foreign politicians, especially British politicians, when visiting India. In 1997, the then British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook almost ruined Queen Elizabeth’s state visit with his ill-conceived offer to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Last year, his successor David Milliband caused similar offense over his views on Kashmir and his perceived aggressive attitude.
Needless to say, Cameron’s words have gone down extremely well with the Indians. They now see him fully on their side as regards Pakistan.
This incident cannot be seen in isolation. Cameron, with a reputation for plain speaking, is now in danger of developing one of playing to the foreign gallery. A fortnight ago in a TV interview made before heading to the US for his first visit there since becoming prime minister, he said that the British had been “the junior partner “ to the Americans in 1940 in the war against Nazi Germany. Praise for the Americans indeed, all the more so given that they did not enter the war till 1941. While in Turkey last week he was doing the same thing, this time waxing lyrical about the importance of it joining the EU, saying that it had to be at “at the heart” of it and that it had the UK’s full support.
Pakistan’s support of terrorism, however, is anything but a statement of fact and to side with the Indians has to mean that Cameron has decided to abandon Britain’s traditional balanced relationship with it and Pakistan. The economic motivation is clear enough. While trade between the UK and Pakistan is worth about $1.7m and is relatively static, that between the UK and India is expected to hit $13 billion this year and may be a great deal more. An indication of a possible golden future was Wednesday’s $1.1-billion air defense deal and the lifting of a British ban on nuclear technology exports to India.
Pandering to India’s view of Pakistan is certainly not going to do trade relations any harm but it screams political immaturity, not just because it is bad diplomacy. There is another, less quantifiable cost, though ultimately far more important. Good relations between the UK and Pakistan are vital in the battle against terrorism — worldwide, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and in the UK itself. Furthermore, there are the million or so Britons of Pakistani origin who are going to feel bitter about Cameron’s partisan stance. Alienating them is not a wise political move. Like the Pakistanis, they are going to feel that Pakistan is being set up in a concerted plot by Washington, London and Delhi as a sponsor of terrorism — with all that it implies.
That could even create more terrorists
Comments
ARJUN NATARAJAN
Jul 30, 2010 17:49
Report abuseHASSAN R
Jul 30, 2010 18:13
Report abuseN. FRANK
Jul 30, 2010 18:13
Report abuseCameraon Chose the Truth.
TARIQ NASIM
Jul 30, 2010 18:25
Report abuseAMI
Jul 30, 2010 18:32
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