DNA Edit | The Great Game

United States President Donald Trump is stepping up the offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and in that campaign, the outspoken President has called for India’s help. Essentially, India has been asked to lend its military might to meet head on the clout of the terrorist organisation in the region.

Over $800 billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ money has been sunk in the doomed offensive against the Taliban, and despite that the terror outfit’s military operations in Afghanistan continue with impunity. A recent US Department of Defence report puts their hold over Afghanistan to at least 20 per cent of its territory.

Despite the force of American military might descending on the region, the Taliban has continued to thrive due to the overt and covert support that terrorists have received from Pakistan. Intelligence reports from the US have repeatedly indicted Pakistan for harbouring the very terrorists that the American forces have been working to eliminate. Pakistan’s two-faced strategy has worked wonders for it in the past as it has received billions of dollars of aid on the promise that its military will take all steps possible to weed out the terrorists in its domain.

However, the Taliban’s formidable presence in Afghanistan attests to the fact that Pakistan’s military elite has benefitted from the US largesse while spinning a yarn when asked to account for its actions against the terrorists.

Thankfully, Trump in his speech made it abundantly clear that this wily stratagem of Pakistan will not pass muster with the US, anymore. Meanwhile, India has also been put in a bit of a fix. Trump’s speech had snatches of veiled threats. “India makes billions of dollars in trade from the United States, and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan,” Trump said.

The reference to the trade imbalance between India and the US shows that the Trump administration is not averse to holding India at a ransom. The subtext is that if India does not become militarily involved in the war-torn nation, it could possibly lose out on the dollar inflow via foreign trade. Trump’s couching of the geopolitical dynamic in such transactional terms is new to global as well as Indian diplomacy.

Many have suggested that the Indian establishment cannot be bullied into increased involvement. However, India’s total exports to the US (over $276 billion in FY 17) is quite formidable to be summarily dismissed. It will be interesting to see the response of the Indian diplomacy in the coming days.