Of evolving friendships & cliques

Xi Jinping, President of China, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, and Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India walk on to a beach in Goa, where, nearby, a sand artist has created joyous messages on world affairs. None attending the BRICS summit have their finger on the nuclear button.

That's the other guy, the one whom beach management denied entry to. He's skulking in the corner, where India has recently put him, post surgical strikes avenging Uri, wondering if he should implode a Pakistan-sized corner of world to 'show em'.

It could all be a bar joke of power-strutting proportions, except it isn't. In the all-too-real world of political dynamics who shakes hands with whom matters.

For the first time since the Valley erupted post the killing of Burhan Wani, in old Baramullah town Chinese flags have been waved by separatists alongside Pakistani ones. The Sino-Pak nexus is at its peak, and key to the Pakistani desire for Kashmir.

China has interests in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, congruent to its strategy of inserting itself by trade ties into conflict zones, from Kabul and Congo to Syria. Kashmir interrupts Pakistan's connections eastwards, and for China, Pakistan will be key to its 'String of Pearls' aspirations towards global dominance, in which India is a rival.

Russia has just had its first bilateral military exercise with Pakistan, signalling an end to the era in which we were the most important partners in each other's lives. Friendships at all levels are evolving quid pro quo equations. We never quite outgrow the cliques we seek to break into in high school, we just upgrade their scale.

At the core of each stage is still how people treat each other; whether we honour our words, whom we betray, for what price, and what we stand for. India's friendships, from Iran, from whom we recently received our first parcel of emergency oil supplies, to Russia have evolved, honourably.

We may not be on back-slapping terms, but we're still old friends who know what we each mean, enabling us to sign 16 deals. China is that kid we are obliged to invite to the party. No delusions there. Do we ever really leave high school? Not quite.