Pakistan is seeking incoming Donald Trump Administration’s role toward defusing tensions between India and Pakistan stemming from the “inflamed” situation in Kashmir.
“I think that can only happen if it (the United States) has a more balanced policy in South Asia,” Pakistan Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi said in New York, weeks ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Questioned about Pakistan-India tensions, during a World Affairs Council discussion, conducted by US Congressman James Moran, Lodhi said:
“Somebody needs to play this role and we think the United States is the best position to do that. I mean at this point in time, for example, the situation in Kashmir – the long-standing dispute between Pakistan and India — is once again inflamed; the situation is grave, it poses a critical threat to regional peace and security and again, you know, what we like to see is the United States not coming as a fire brigade to put out a fire but to come in at a time where it can avert any kind of crisis from brewing and exploding actually.”
The event was part of a series about “Women Ambassadors in the United States.”
“So I am not suggesting that’s about to happen but I am saying before the next crisis happens this is a role of leadership that the United States can play,” Dr Lodhi added.
The diplomat urged a more balanced policy in South Asia, Ambassador Lodhi said, “In recent years we in Pakistan have felt that the United States lacked balance in its approach to South Asia, and as a result we lost something in the relationship…” She said the lack of balance was best represented in the nuclear deal — the civilian nuclear deal that the Bush administration pursued and in fact concluded with India — which was a discriminatory nuclear policy towards the region and had consequences for it.
She pointed out that the people of Kashmir have “waited for seventy years to see justice done to their cause, to see Security Council resolutions being implemented, so we do believe that the answer to the instability in our region which is caused by primarily and principally the dispute over Kashmir should be resolved …”
“This is no piece of real estate that Pakistan and India is fighting over, this is about people, it is about the self-determination of the people and their right to their self-determination is enshrined in the UN charter in UN declarations and in UN Security Council resolutions all we say is allow the people of Kashmir to decide their future.”
Ambassador Lodhi underscored the need for a dialogue to resolve the Kashmir dispuate and other issues between the two countries.
“It is important that Pakistan and India sit down and find a peaceful settlement of this issue to allow the people one fifth of mankind (living in South Asia) to enjoy the fruits of peace,” she said. “Peace that other parts of the world has enjoyed, why should over a billion people be deprived of this.”
The Pakistan envoy also suggested that the new U.S administration back a peace process in Afghanistan for which Islamabad would be willing to play a role to end this war that has brought so much grief to the peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“We host so many refuges, and quite apart from that, it (the conflict) has destabilized large parts of the border,” she said, adding, “So I think in this region there is a lot that the United States can do and I think one of the mechanisms that has been evolved to help promote peace and a dialogue between the insurgents and the Afghan government in Afghanistan is called the Quadrilateral Coordination Group which brings together Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and United States.
“So I think if the new administration … fully backs this mechanism and, through this mechanism, is able to conclude Afghanistan’s long war, it would make a huge contribution to regional peace and a huge contribution to world peace.
“We’ve got to find a negotiated peace in Afghanistan — that is the consensus of the United Nations and that is the consensus of the international community. I know the United States is dedicated also to this goal, but dedication may not be enough, it needs to be proactively involved in order to achieve and accomplish this goal.”
