Via Pakistan's Dawn, New Delhi remains irritated by talk of a brokered Kashmir settlement with Pakistan:
India on Wednesday said it needs no external help to improve ties with neighbor Pakistan, in a testy response to a statement issued by the United States and China.
New Delhi is sensitive to what it perceives as any outside interference in its regional diplomacy, especially over Pakistan and the fate of the disputed Kashmir region.
The United States and China issued a joint statement after President Barack Obama met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, which included a line of support for the improvement of India-Pakistan relations.
‘Government of India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a peaceful bilateral dialogue,’ an Indian Foreign Ministry statement said.
‘A third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary.’
Which is a problem because lots of informed people think a third country role is necessary. And because the importance of improving India-Pakistan relations is hugely important to solving our AfPak problems--and wildly out of proportion with the minimal discussion it gets here in the US. If Pakistan could ever learn to stop fixating on India as a mortal enemy it might get a) more serious about devoting military resources to fighting indigenous Islamist radicals and b) end its double-game of supporting Islamists in Afghanistan, whom Islamabad views as a handy buffer against Indian influence in that neighboring country.
People forget--or may not know--that India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the last 50 years.