NAWAZ'S LAST SHY AT PEACE WITH INDIA

The growing Chinese presence in Pakistan is poised to take on an even larger footprint. This in itself must spur India into taking a fresh look at ties with its western neighbour

- NEENA GOPAL

WHILE Pakistan's leafy Lahore suburb of Jati Umra saw former prime minister Nawaz Sharif play host to select members of the Indian media accompanying Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar's landmark appearance at the Shanghai Cooperation Council meet, Chinese officials were reported to have met with a Baloch separatist leader in a quiet café in London. Balochi leaders refused to confirm or deny the meeting, with most saying it had no sanction.

This took place days after a Baloch suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a convoy that killed three Chinese officials just outside Karachi International airport—a clear bid to derail the SCO meet. Chinese employees working on various projects on the Belt and Road Initiative and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor have also recently become the target of Baloch separatist ire. An increasingly concerned China—looking at ways to ensure its grand plan to connect the Central Asia states to the Arabian Sea through the key Pakistani port of Gwadar moves forward—has now offered to put boots on the ground and send its own security personnel to Pakistan.

The growing Chinese presence in Pakistan is poised to take on an even larger footprint. That factor alone must spur India, facing down the People's Liberation Army on its Northeastern border, into taking a fresh look at ties with its western neighbour.

Our equation with Pakistan has been on ice since India's cross-border attack in February 2019 on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot as retaliation for an attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama. Trade between India and Pakistan had been suspended after the Pulwama attack as well, with India imposing heavy duties on goods from Pakistan.