Pakistan Facilitates Afghanistan’s Economic Access – OpEd

Once again, an amazing display of regional connectivity and positive diplomacy. Pakistan has proven itself the key to integrating Afghanistan in economic terms into the larger network of trade relations with China through China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the strategically located Gwadar Port. The docking of the ship MV ASL ROSE at the Gwadar port with its consignment of 20,000 tonnes of DAP fertilizer and meant specifically to be used within the agricultural sector of Afghanistan in particular is a strong image to prove the even-handed commitment that Pakistan has towards regional stability, the expansion of the trade and economic partnership. 

This development is not only the indication of the increased significance of Gwadar as a trade nexus in the region but also indicates the commitment by Islamabad to ensure that the land locked Afghanistan has an effective and efficient route to reach the Arabian Sea to ensure that land locked Kabul has an alternative to its usual corridors in trade. The influence of such moves is quite redundant as it will help to divert the record amounts of dependency that Afghanistan has had on politically tinted chores such as Iran based Chabahar Port where India has mostly had its ill shaped interests overlapping with genuine economic ties. In the past Indians have on numerous occasions claimed economic relations with Iran as an extension of their grand regional policy but when it comes to the ground reality it has been seen that the relationship of New Delhi with Iran has been more of a sham than a genuine attempt by India to make Iran undergo joint development. 

The issue of India big-talking of developing the Chabahar port in Iran should be reported globally and that this port is going to make Gwadar irrelevant as the hub of regional trade will fall in the hands of India. However, despite the fact that Iran was seriously isolated geopolitically by the western sanctions and geopolitical escalations with Israel and the U.S, India secretly washed its hands off the Chabahar or other ventures leaving Iran in the lurch and abandoning its alleged ally in the economic hope she had to climb up.

This trend of hypocrisy has intensified even further with some recent news that not only did India desert Iran at a time when it needed help, it possibly teamed up against Iranian interests. Quality media reports out of Iran have ascertained that up to 72 Indian intelligence officers got arrested by Iranian security forces on suspicion of spying, and selling sensitive national security information to the Israeli Mossad which enables Israeli to fireball strategic Iranian installations. This scandal has badly jolted Tehran, compelling its leadership to ponder on the glaring reality that India, a country that has over the years fronted itself as a firm friend of Iran has in actual sense been using Iranian soil and trust to the advantage of its strategic partners in the West and Israel. 

Betrayal does not only promote the fact that India lacks principled diplomacy but also shows how transactional the foreign policy of India really is as values are sacrificed to be briefly popular. The result is that Tehran is now forced to reconsider its decades of dealing with India when it was very clear that support to destabilize Pakistan and ingratiating itself to Israel were the priorities. Iranian policymakers have been appalled upon the secretive liaison of Indian intelligence outfit RAW with Mossad since they discover the degree to which the Indian intelligence agency has infiltrated into the security establishment of Iran on the pretext of economic and diplomatic relations.

The flaw of Indian hypocrisy goes beyond espionage activities. New Delhi also conspicuously lacked in solidarity when Israel is attacked by a wave of condemnation by the Muslim world over its recent air strikes on Iranian military installations. India did not even call any statement against the act of attack but it is a clear sign that it is likely to sustain its flourishing relationship with Tel Aviv and the western group than to support a struggling Muslim neighbour despite decades of their friendship and the common interests they both had regionally. This silent aversion showed how hollow was India so called independent foreign policy and its increasing orientation toward the western-Israeli strategic line. When even the countries not situated that close paid attention to the growing, India had to keep silent in order to demonstrate its desire to stay in the favour of the powers aimed to isolate and weaken Iran. 

This has not come without consequences in Tehran as opinion makers and officials have started to doubt India as a reliable strategic partner since they have realized that New Delhi only joins its alliances out of opportunism and its self-interest.

As a contrasting example to a transactional behaviour of India, Pakistan has proved to be a responsible, stable and trusted friend of Afghanistan and the region in general. Islamabad has strengthened its image of an initiator of economic growth and regional integration by opening up Afghan transit trade via Gwadar Port and by induction of Kabul into CPEC. In comparison to the unfulfilled promises of Chabahar by India, what Pakistan is doing is bearing fruit and Afghanistan traders are getting the advantages as they now get state of art facilities, cheap logistics services, and can easily reach the international markets. This expanding trade route does not only strengthen the Pak-Afghan economic links but also limits Indian trickery in manipulating the Afghan need of Iranian routes. The economic sovereignty and stability of Afghanistan has received constant support by Islamabad, which compromises Indian policy of proxy operations against Pakistan which formerly used Afghanistan as its territory.

The region policy of India is completely disproved. New Delhi has not only betrayed Iran but its irrelevancy in international meetings such as G7 makes it a clear indication that it is losing its international stature. India has failed to exert its diplomatic influence in such high-level talks as the United States and Iran recently elevated tensions over Israel, and thus revealed the short comings of its diplomatic stature. This diplomatic isolation, along with the revelation of its exposed espionage operations in Iran, will most probably lead to a weaker position of India in West Asia as well as in other regions. Iran in the meantime stands at a crossroad as it recalibrates its foreign policy. 

India has been exposed as a duplicitous state that secretly collaborated with Mossad and Tehran needs to re-evaluate its relations to the former to ensure they are not exploited and betrayed again. The secret operations that India has engaged in so as to sabotage the efforts of Iranian security interests and at the same time using Iran as a lever to pressurize Pakistan are now no longer a secret and this is something that reduced whatever trust that the Iranian leadership had been having towards its eastern neighbour.

Besides, these events confirm the worries that Pakistan has always had towards the destabilizing role played by India in the region. But New Delhi I am talking today about years Islamabad has been warning that New Delhi exercises a kind of hegemony and seeks to divide or create discord and conflict in West and South Asia to deny emergence of cooperative regional orders with powers to reduce its power. These warnings are proved to be true by the recent revelations of Iran and the strategic walkout of India on the Chabahar that shows that India has more admiration in disturbance rather than facilitate any development. Here, the role of Pakistan in the facilitation of the Afghan transit trade through Gwadar becomes even more important. It is not only the economic project but also a counterbalance to Indian manipulation. Pakistan reduces the opportunity of Indian influence in the region by providing Afghanistan with a non-threatening, efficient and resource gaining channel of trade.

Iran also can take an advantage of revisioning its economic orientation. The connectivity of Gwadar to Belt and Road Initiative of China holds out the prospect of opportunities that are free of duplicity and pressure on Tehran by India and the Western world. It is possible that the shift to CPEC related projects would enable Iran to engage in actual regional prosperity instead of becoming the victim of strategic deception games of India. The involvement of Pakistan is a much safer bet in the economic destiny of Iran, having proved to be more faithful in the regard of inclusive development, transparency, and sovereignty compared to India, the economic performance of whom has been rendered unfit to enjoy the reputation forever.

It is clear that the arrival of the MV ASL ROSE to the Gwadar Port does not only mean the match of the development of Afghan transit trade it is the victory of the genuine cooperation in the region over the runs and lie of the falsified foreign policy of India. And as Islamabad goes on to construct these bridges of commerce and connectivity in South and Central Asia, it presents a paradigm that involves win-win, principally and unconditionally missing in the Indian performance in the region. Now Iran and Afghanistan among other neighbouring nations have to painstakingly consider their options based on these developments. The facts are factual: Pakistan is the key to real progress in the region whereas the duplicity of India is the factor which contributes to destabilising the region, loss of trust, and peace.