Trilateral cooperation

While the working group comprising Afghan, Pakistani and Indian experts agrees that Afghanistan is a long way from measuring up to corruption free governance and other vital benchmarks laid down to ensure political and economic stability, it slammed continuing Indian-Pakistani rivalry in Afghanistan. Only as partners could these two nations help to stabilize the war-torn country. Pakistan's inability or unwillingness to deal with the Taliban insurgency on its side of the border was considered to be a major factor in destabilising Afghanistan. The working group argued that India and Pakistan could cooperate much more. At present they were working together on certain projects such as a trilaterial hydroelectric project and sharing anti-terrorism intelligence to a limited extent, but much more had to be done especially in terms of establishing contacts at parliamentary level and expanding trade and student exchanges.

Relations betweeen India and Pakistan have been protracted with difficulties and subject to intense strain ever since their independence from Great Britain in 1947. Since partition, which split families, caused mass migration and triggered religious conflict on a huge scale, the two countries have regarded each other with intense suspicion. For Pakistani policymakers, India's vast population and her huge economic and military resources make shaping relations with New Delhi very complex.

Power politics

There is a huge temptation to play the "great game" of power politics and risk an adverse impact on other countries and the region as a whole, to use the analysis of Afghan political analyst Faheem Dahsty:

"As long as the relationship between the two countries is not normal and there is tension, then it affects the situation in Afghanistan negatively. Pakistan will then create more trouble in order to have some allies or a place in Afghanistan. But if the relations get better, which seems to be the case in the last few months, then Afghanistan will benefit from it, because Pakistan will not need to create problems for Afghanistan in order to confront India."

Although the history of relations between India and Pakistan shows that both countries find it extremely difficult to conduct normal relations with each other, Dashty hopes that things are now going in the right direction. He believes there is scope of a policy of small steps like reaching agreements in different areas such as trade, culture, sports and politics.

Lack of trust

But for India and Pakistan to work together, trust is still missing, says Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai. He explains further that while the old issue of Kashmir, which has been going on for decades, has not been resolved, new issues have now appeared on the agenda. This does not help both sides to build confidence. Yusufzai suggests starting with issues that are relatively easy to resolve, for example the border dispute between India and Pakistan.

He says "I think we need to resolve the smaller issues, the less contentious issues; It is a glacier, the highest battle ground in the world, where we have been fighting. And that is almost near a solution now. And the border dispute between India and Pakistan is also near a solution. If you can get these two small issues out of the way, then maybe we can then tackle the larger ones."

Different perspectives

For the Indian ex General Ashok Mehta, the military is the key factor. In the last 60 years, there has not been any worthwhile contact between the military establishment of the two countries. The problem is that while in Pakistan the military is a state within a state that defies civilian control, Indian politicians control the Indian military. That means that the Pakistani military establishment has a very different perspective. Mehta believes, "Although there is a civilian government, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to guess that when it comes to India-Pakistan the military has a veto on the civilian government. That is not the case in India. In India, the military is severely under civilian control."

Since the 2008 attack on Mumbai by Islamist militants little progress has been made between the two sides at government level. Islamabad and New Delhi both continue to seek influence in Afghanistan at the expense of the other. While Indian ex General Ashok Mehta knows that talks like those brokered by the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation will not be emulated any time soon by political leaders, he is optimistic. Strategic patience, he says, is key to resolving conflicts. He also thinks that the talks in Berlin between opinion leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India will find their way to the political process in their respective countries. "We have members of parliament, we have people from the media, we have civil society persons, we have military people and they are opinion makers. So, they have contact with the establishment, they have contact with diplomats, some of them have contacts with politicians. Media people will write about this initiative."

What about the people?

Journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, on the other hand, is less optimistic about trilateral efforts in independent forums like this one in Berlin. Although delegations from conflicting countries manage to meet regularly, they have not been able to trigger further reaching talks at an official level yet. His hopes lie elsewhere.

He says he has hope in the people of the three countries. "The Afghan people, the Pakistani people, the Indian people, they are all out for peace. Every survey has shown that they want peace and are against war. That needs to be used and mobilized, the public opinion, to try and strive for peace."

That is an honorable goal and one which the German foundation continues to support.

Author: Anggatira Gollmer
Editor: Grahame Lucas