Pakistan/Kashmir

Any conversation in America on Afghanistan these days leads seamlessly towards Pakistan. Obama has repeatedly argued that without fixing the Pakistan problem, there is no way of defusing the Afghan crisis. Obama also holds that a resolution of the Kashmir question might be necessary to get Pakistan to cooperate on Afghanistan.

On the face of it, Obama seems unaware of the determined effort that Dr Singh has made to improve India’s relations with Pakistan and negotiate a peaceful settlement to the Kashmir dispute. In updating Obama on the peace talks, the Indian Prime Minister has an opportunity to underline India’s shared interests with the United States on engineering a democratic transformation of Pakistan. The PM could also signal India’s readiness to begin a serious conversation with the US on the full range of issues relating to Pakistan’s political and strategic future.

C. Raja Mohan is a Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and a contributing editor to The Indian Express