What did Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar mean when, during a London news conference, he stated that China was a neighbor “in a way” yet explicitly mentioned Afghanistan, Iran, and India as Pakistan’s near neighbors?
He would probably explain that people read too much into his bungling of a straightforward statement about Pakistan’s sovereign territory, that he was speaking in the “flow,” and that as a senior leader and responsible man, he doesn’t need critics scrutinizing every word he says in his capacity as foreign minister.
This could all be accurate. He should have noted that China differs from Afghanistan, Iran, and India in that it is a neighbor “in a way.
that differs from Afghanistan, Iran, and India in the same way that someone may touch their beard, clear their throat, or cough during the utterance of a significant sentence without intending to convey a deeper message.
It is not as simple to overlook the timing or the particular ramifications of this distinction, though. I’ll get into why the ramifications are significant, but first, let’s take a broader view of how India and Pakistan interact.
Before he even became prime minister of India, Narendra Modi was chopping up awkward foreigners who were itching to have a piece of the action in India. His strategy for improving India’s place in the world is planned, extremely disciplined, dependable, goal-oriented, and visionary.
