India Forgets 'Smart Power' Lesson of Rao

With its embrace of the Israeli regime, India is undoing decades of diplomatic efforts and alienating old friend Iran. Meanwhile, Pakistan is displaying strategic autonomy while repositioning itself

- M K BHADRAKUMAR

A spectacular display of strategic autonomy in world politics appeared on Sunday at the United Nations Security Council emergency session after the US-led strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Pakistan joined hands with Russia and China to propose a resolution demanding an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire." While the draft resolution did not explicitly name the US or Israel, it condemned the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.

To pass, the resolution requires the backing of at least nine members—which it has reportedly secured—but also not attract any veto by the permanent members. That proviso makes it a non-starter, since the US won't censure itself. Nonetheless, it is an astonishingly assertive display of strategic autonomy by Pakistan within a week after the lunch hosted by US President Donald Trump for Pakistan's army chief General Asim Munir at the White House and their one-on-one conversation.

Trump has a way of intimidating people positively or negatively. He could not find time to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit last week, but instead invited him to the White House. Trump probably intended to get Modi and Munir together, which would have been a feather in his cap as a 'mediator'. So typical of Trump! But Modi preferred to visit 'Mahaprabhu's land', Odisha.

How does Gen Munir get away with such blatantly provocative 'multi-alignment'—to borrow External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's coinage? The answer is that the exceptional hospitality Munir received at the White House did not cloud his firm judgment about the highest importance of Islamabad acting—and be seen as acting—as Iran's best friend in the neighborhood at such a time of trial and tribulation in that country's 2,700-year history, when it faces an existential threat from the US-Israel juggernaut.