Advocating the cause of its “all-weather friend” the Chinese think tank says that India’s presence adds to Pakistan’s fears and would lessen the hopes of its playing an active role in restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The Chinese study said that this attitude of the US in promoting India’s presence has embittered its relationship with Pakistan and the latter may not effectively play its role for ushering in peace in Afghanistan.

Commenting on the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement signed in October 4, 2011, an article appearing in the China International Strategy Review-2012 said : “This agreement, the very first of its kind in Afghanistan’s past three decades, assures an Indian role in Afghanistan into the future. In fact, given that the US has been supporting India to play a greater role in Afghanistan, this equates to acknowledging an Indian takeover of Afghanistan from the US.”

The Pakistani government did not comment on this pact officially, but the media was furious.

“This agreement distresses Pakistan; with more than 60 years of feud between India and Pakistan, this agreement is regarded by Pakistanis as a treat of being attacked from two fronts. This is unbearable for Pakistan. Although not all people support the army’s mindset of ‘strategic in-depth’, Pakistan diplomats and politicians have come to two basic consensus about the bottom line and principle of their Afghan strategy, namely, (1) the solution to Afghanistan should have no negative spill-over effects for Pakistan and shall not add elements of instability to the region; (2) Kabul shall not antagonize Pakistan and the Afghan land should not be used to harm Pakistani interests,” the article in the China International Strategy Review-2012 said.

The author of the article Qian Xuemei, who is an associate professor in the School of International Studies in Peking University further said that with $2 billion aid India has become “one of the largest donors” and quoted Indian Prime Dr Manmohan Singh saying in May 2011 that unlike Western countries, India “will never retreat from Afghanistan.”

US-Pakistan relation was crisis ridden in 2011 as India and Afghanistan signed strategic partnership agreement. “Therefore, unless India-Pakistan relations can break new ground, Pakistan will not sit here without doing anything. The US tried to promote normalisation of India-Pakistan relations in 2011, and the bilateral minister-level dialogue resumed. But it will be very difficult to dispel the entrenched hatred and antagonism that has existed for decades, let alone to foster strategic mutual trust between these two countries,” the article written by the Chinese scholar said.

Quoting a Pakistani defence analyst, the author said that India-Afghanistan pact will exacerbate the “proxy war” in Afghanistan because India’s training assistance to Afghan army is not in the interests of Pakistan, who will be forced into “reappraising its approach to militancy.”