Islamabad/Washington, August 25(ANI): Pakistan's foreign policy elite continue to view India's engagements in Afghanistan as going beyond development and challenging Islamabad's interests in the country, according to a new report.
The report, published by the US Institute of Peace and Pakistan's Jinnah Institute, is scheduled for release in Islamabad later today.
The report drew on a series of discussions with a wide range of Pakistani bureaucrats, journalists, diplomats and former and serving military officials about what Pakistan is looking for in Afghanistan post-US troops withdrawal in 2014, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A recurring concern raised by participants was India's spending of over one billion dollars in Afghanistan in recent years to fund roads, schools, and other infrastructure, the paper said.
The report said that some in Pakistan's foreign policy elite see India's outlays, and New Delhi's offers to train the Afghan National Security Forces, as an unwanted attempt to influence the endgame in Afghanistan, it added.
"Project participants explained the Pakistani state's fears that expanding Indian influence over a primarily non-Pashtun government in Kabul could lead the latter to be increasingly hostile towards Islamabad," the report said.
"Indeed, the India question continues to be seen in the context of Indian encirclement" of Pakistan, it added.
However, the participants did recognise that Pakistan has interfered too much in Afghanistan over the past twenty years and, as a consequence, this has led to increased militancy in their own society, the paper said.
The report said that the policy experts also realise that this policy has led to Afghans viewing Pakistanis with distrust, while Indians have a more positive image.
One way Pakistan can improve this is to take a leaf out of India's book and push trade and development with Afghanistan, the report added. (ANI)
|
|
Read More: Delhi
Comments:
