Progress in transforming the Indo-Pak relations, in turn, allows New Delhi to encourage Islamabad and Kabul to arrest the rapid downslide in their bilateral relations. India needs to recognise that its interests in Afghanistan, including transit trade, cannot be realised until there is a measure of trust between New Delhi and Islamabad on the one hand and between Kabul and Islamabad on the other.

The best way of getting there is to begin a three-way conversation on the margins of Saarc, which in fact provides a framework for sub-regional cooperation between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

New Delhi rightly sees Afghanistan’s entry into the Saarc as a major diplomatic achievement. But the real gains might emerge only when India restores the strategic unity of the subcontinent by reconciling India-Pak-Afghan discord. All Indian efforts in that direction are likely to find strong support from the US, Japan, Europe and probably China as well.

The writer is professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore