PM-Zardari meet amid US shadow on Pak

Yekaterinburg will provide India an opportunity to leverage the presence of Russia and China and their important roles in rescuing the global economy so as to thwart US from unilaterally meddling in this region
Sanjay Kapoor Delhi Hardnews

Armed with a fresh mandate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be meeting with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari at Yekaterinburg, Russia. Considerable importance is being attached to this meeting as it takes place after the brazen attack in Mumbai by Pakistan-based terrorists in November last year. India had put the composite dialogue with its neighbour on hold and linked its resumption with Islamabad's commitment to bring the guilty to book and also to dismantle the structure of terror that had come up in different parts of Pakistan.

Since then, a lot of water has flown in the Indus and Ganges. Pakistan has become a major concern of the US and is now perceived as an epicentre of terror in this region. President Barack Obama, as promised during the run-up to the presidential election, is investing a lot of money, and diplomatic and military energy to prevent Islamabad from falling into the hands of the Taliban, which seemed to be on the ascent before the Pakistani army launched its operations in Swat valley and Waziristan. These military operations were undertaken at the behest of the Americans after Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, managed to convince the Presidential Advisor, Richard Holbrooke, and a few others that Kabul's misery had more to do with Pakistan and less to do with his government's corruption and poor quality of governance. The US government's "regional" approach has seen engagement with Iran and overtures to India to stabilise the situation in the Af-Pak region.

First, President Obama and subsequently others from the US administration has been asking India to cut down the number of troops amassed at its border with Pakistan so that Islamabad could shift its troops to its volatile Afghanistan border and neutralise the threat posed by the Taliban.

The Indian government has been reluctant to scale down its troops in the absence of guarantees on cross border infiltration of jehadi elements. The Mumbai attack by terrorists contributed in hardening India's stand. US government has been brokering normalisation between the two countries in an effort to cut down their troops in Afghanistan. Their effort to show that terrorists infiltrating into India originate from the same ungoverned space between Afghanistan and Pakistan makes it imperative for New Delhi to participate in this ambitious US enterprise.

The US has been pressuring India that it should coordinate with Pakistan intelligence to take on the Taliban. In fact, the new CIA chief Leon Panetta, during his trip to Delhi, told the Indian national security advisor that India's RAW and Pakistan's ISI should work together. His suggestion, Hardnews learnt, was met with considerable disbelief. Since then, sources informed Hardnews, there have been meetings between the two agencies in Islamabad.

The government of Manmohan Singh that enjoyed an extremely warm relation with the US under President George W Bush, is a bit uncertain about how the new democratic administration perceives the Kashmir issue. The Indian government feels that in trying to mollify the Pakistani main street, Washington may initiate moves to "solve" the Kashmir issue. India would not want any interference in Kashmir which seems heaven in comparison to what is happening in Pakistan.