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| India-Pakistan |
| India looks at more ways to pressure Pakistan |
| 2016-10-02 |
| Beyond last Thursday's raid by Indian special forces into Pakistan's side of divided Kashmir, New Delhi is considering new economic and diplomatic measures to bring pressure to bear on its neighbor, Indian officials said. Some Indian officials said the military was not planning further attacks or a major military offensive against Pakistan. But they said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government was debating whether to use New Delhi's rising economic and diplomatic weight to squeeze Pakistan, a country one-fifth its size and with an economy seven times smaller. According to one of them, India could try to dissuade international companies from conducting business in Pakistan. Options under consideration include choking trade with Pakistan that takes place through third countries such as the United Arab Emirates, officials said, even though it is limited and in India's favor. Official trade between India and Pakistan was a modest $2.6 billion in 2014, but informal trade is estimated to be closer to $5 billion, with jewelry, textiles and machinery exported from India through third-country ports such as Dubai. India's informal imports from Pakistan through the same channels consist of textiles, dry fruits, spices and cement. New Delhi is also considering building dams on rivers running into Pakistan and intensifying diplomatic pressure, hoping that it can show other countries how militants based in Pakistan impact the rest of the world, the officials added. The steps being considered signal a far more assertive posture by India under Modi's nationalist administration than the previous government, but it risks further escalating tensions between the countries. One Indian security official described the new Indian approach as moving from a "defensive posture to defensive offense", under which India works on the vulnerabilities of Pakistan - its economy, internal security and international image as an unstable nation, home to militant Islamist groups. |
| Posted by:Pappy |