Judging by its rather defensive reaction to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s remarks on Jammu and Kashmir, New Delhi appears unprepared to cope with the new approach to India and Pakistan that has been promised by Barack Hussein Obama, who will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States today.

The context of Miliband’s remarks is important. That he was denouncing America’s “war on terror” just days before its author, George W. Bush, was about to demit office merely underlines London’s eagerness to quickly adapt to the regime change in Washington.

What Miliband says about Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations matters a lot less than the argument that Obama has consistently articulated since the launch of his presidential campaign in early 2007.

To his credit, Obama recognised that the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, as Bush decided at great cost to the United States, but Afghanistan. Obama was right to insist that the war on terror launched in Afghanistan in 2001 must also be brought to a close there.

Second, Obama argued, with some insight, that the problems in Afghanistan cannot be solved without addressing the sources of support for extremism and terrorism in Pakistan. With the war in Afghanistan expanding across the Durand Line into Pakistan, few in the world, let alone India, will object to this proposition.

It is the third element of Obama’s argument that is viewed with some apprehension in New Delhi. Obama’s assessment is that addressing Pakistan’s security concerns on the east with India holds the key to Islamabad’s genuine cooperation in the war on terror.That in turn has led to a linkage, in Obama’s mind, between the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan on the one hand, and the US vulnerability in Afghanistan. The proposal to appoint a special envoy to the region has flowed out of this proposition.

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