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Trump says there's "reasonably decent" news on India-Pakistan conflict, "hopefully" it's coming to end
[Bloomberg] Risk of India-Pakistan War May Hang on the Fate of Downed PilotAs Asia’s most acrimonious rivals face off, the fate of a captured Indian Air Force pilot may hold the key to whether -- and how -- each side is able to step back from broader conflict. India and Pakistan, which have fought three major wars since the bloody partition of 1947, regularly exchange artillery and small-weapons fire across a disputed border. But the situation that flared up earlier this month escalated dramatically into Wednesday, with the loss of an Indian MiG 21 fighter jet and the pilot later paraded on Pakistani television. While the U.S., Russia and China are all calling for calm, domestic political pressures make it far from easy for either side in the conflict to back down. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi must contest a general election within weeks, while his counterpart, Imran Khan, faces a military that is seeking to assert its dominance when Pakistan is in the eye of a financial and economic storm. The full political fallout of the exchanges remains unclear, but it’s evident that the capture of a pilot “complicates matters and will heighten tensions,” said Sandeep Shastri, a political scientist and Pro Vice Chancellor at Jain University in Bangalore. Still, in an address to the nation, Khan called for India-Pakistan talks to resolve the situation, saying that “better sense should prevail.” A Pakistani official in Washington said his country wants peace and dialogue with India to avoid escalation and confrontation, but he said India must help resolve the underlying conflict over Kashmir. That may in part reflect Pakistan’s greater exposure to the financial and economic fallout. Pakistan’s benchmark stock index plunged as much as 3.8 percent in Karachi, while India’s S&P BSE Sensex was down a mere 0.2 percent in Mumbai after gaining earlier in the day. Any sense of optimism in New Delhi at Khan’s conciliatory stance was undermined by the appearance shortly later of the downed Indian pilot on television, thanking the Pakistani Army for rescuing him from a mob. India’s Foreign Ministry promptly objected to “Pakistan’s vulgar display” of air force personnel “in violation of all norms of International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Convention.” It demanded the “immediate and safe return” of the pilot. The Pakistani official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the pilot in custody is being treated well and isn’t under duress. Modi, who must contest a general election within weeks, is drawing political capital by using Pakistan as a punching bag, the official said. Posted by: 3dc 2019-02-28 |
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