Changing balance of power between India and Pakistan

In Context 

Some major changes in Indian diplomacy towards Pakistan  have been observed in the last few years .

• India’s approach today is very different from the framework that emerged at the dawn of the 1990s and the regional and international context has also altered in many ways since the early 1990s essentially in India’s favour. 

Bileratla Relations between India-Pakistan 

• Attempts for engagement : India has made a number of attempts to build normal neighbourly relations with  Pakistan.
  • The External Affairs Minister’s (EAM)  also took the initiative to propose a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue in December 2015. 
• Trade and Commerce
  • The figures for India Pakistan bilateral trade in the last 5 years is as follows:
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•  Image Courtesy: Mea.gov.in
  • India had accorded MFN status to Pakistan in 1996. 
    • A Pakistan cabinet decision  of November 02, 2011 to reciprocate remains unimplemented
• In 2017, India suggested to Pakistan to revive the mechanism of the  Joint Judicial Committee which looks into humanitarian issues of fishermen and  prisoners in each other’s custody.
• Cultural 
  • The visit to religious shrines between India and Pakistan is governed by the  Bilateral Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines signed between India and Pakistan in  1974. 
  • Kartarpur Corridor : Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kartarpur Sahib  Corridor in 2019 on the occasion of the 550th birth Anniversary of Guru  Nanak Dev Ji and flagged-off the first group of pilgrims to Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib.

Issues between both the countries 

• India’s relations with Pakistan are the most complex of its ties with its neighbours. 
• Terrorism emanating from territories under Pakistan’s control remains a core  concern in bilateral relations.
  • Pulwama cross-border terror attack: In a heinous and despicable act of cross  border terror attack on the convey of Indian security forces in Pulwama, Jammu &  Kashmir in 2019, 40 security personnel were martyred
• The relations between the two countries have remained strained for years now and took a turn for the worse in August 2019 when India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
• In 2019, Pakistan announced unilateral  measures, including downgrading of diplomatic relations, suspension of bilateral trade  and review of bilateral agreements with India. 
  • India has urged Pakistan to review its unilateral actions in respect  of relations with India so that normal channels of diplomatic communications are  preserved.
• Pakistan’s ambition and Demand   :It aims to change the status quo in Jammu and Kashmir with a three-pronged strategy — violent destabilisation of Kashmir while raising human rights concerns in global forums, reopen the Kashmir question that India believed was settled after the 1971 war, and leverage global nuclear concerns to force Indian concessions on Kashmir. 

Moves of India 

• India’s transformed relations with the US  and getting the West to discard its temptation to mediate on Kashmir enormously improved India’s diplomatic position. 
• Following the cross border terrorist attack on an  army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on 18 September 2016 and continued  incidents of terrorist infiltrations, the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes at various  terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control, based on specific and credible inputs,  and inflicted significant casualties to terrorists and those providing support to them
• India and Pakistan have been engaged in “back channel” talks in order to break the stalemate in the relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
• By changing the constitutional status of Kashmir in 2019, India has reduced the scope of India’s future negotiations with Pakistan on Kashmir.

Way Forward 

• In keeping with its “Neighbourhood First Policy”, India desires normal neighbourly  relations with Pakistan. 
•  India  has made clear that it will not compromise on issues relating to national  security and will take firm and decisive steps to deal with all attempts to undermine India’s security and territorial integrity.

India’s new initiatives can reinforce the positive evolution of Indian foreign policy, and expand the space for Indian diplomacy in the region and beyond.