The EU’s Cold Shoulder to India’s Pakistan Narrative

In the latest turn of events in the world of diplomacy that has left the halls of global politics shocked and stunned, the undiplomatic, hawkish attitude of India towards Pakistan has received a clear and humiliating dismissal in the face of the European Union. Notwithstanding the frenzied attempts by Indian representatives, especially its External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, to label Pakistan as a “terror sponsor” in as many international forums as possible, the European Union remained adamant in buying the New Delhi narrative. The EU’s Cold Shoulder to India’s Pakistan Narrative The episode serves as a brutal reminder of how diplomatically isolated India is becoming and how ineffective its foreign policy based on confrontation rather than engagement is proving to be; or, perhaps, it would be better to say, it is more geared toward whipping up political passions at home than actual diplomacy and building of friendships or at least neutralizing the hostility of various nations of the world.
The recent statement by the EU Vice President was a diplomatic coup demister that laughed off the unending defamation campaign against Pakistan by India in a diplomatic yet forceful way. By clearly defining that the EU-India relation was purely bilateral and not intended to be an anti-Pakistan forum, the European Union not only secured its own independent diplomatic stance but implicitly accepted the due position of Pakistan in the international community. To Pakistan, this was a silent but sweeping triumph, a validation of its long suffering and adult diplomatic outreach whereas to India, the episode sounded as an embarrassing loss to a story yearlong in the telling.
The central contributor to this diplomatic fiasco has been the ever shriller and more warlike rhetoric against the western neighbour by India, epitomized in the now-notorious tirades by Jaishankar about Pakistan being a Terrorist rhetoric that even the most hard-line international actors have not been willing to copy. These undiplomatic tantrums cannot be written off as a slip of the tongue, rather they are a manifestation of a bigger ulcer that has bitten the foreign policy machinery in India. Far contrary to projecting strength, they reveal the desperation of a nation struggling with its waning diplomatic influence finally scrambling to cover irrelevance on the world scene with fear and hostility.
A country that was once vying to be a global leader and a permanent member of the UN Security Council has been brought down to the level of a school yard bully, with ministers who have substituted statesmanship with sloganeering and diplomats who are at a loss on how to overcome the manifestations of international disinterest. As a sharp contrast one can place Pakistan whose diplomats have waded through the treacherous geopolitical waters with a restrained deftness, dialogue instead of diatribe, patience instead of provocation and as the EU reaction demonstrates this policy is already paying off.
The refusal of the European Union to echo the anti-Pakistan rhetoric of India is not merely a matter of a single policy decision, it is a very loud, very clear message to the world in general, and the international community in particular, that the years, long efforts of Delhi to internationally isolate Pakistan have not only been unsuccessful, but have backfired in the most spectacular fashion. The clarification by the EU Vice President that the EU ties with India are not intended to hurt Pakistan, was a diplomatic tsunami for the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, annulling the very premise of the so-called Terrorist a doctrine of Prime Minister Modi.
India has been wasting political capital over the years, attempted to develop a global consensus against Pakistan, in the hope of declaring its neighbour an international pariah. But this has had the contrary effect: Pakistan has ended up with an enhanced credibility, expanded diplomatic cooperatives and quiet reinforcement of its standing in multilateral forums, whether in the EU or the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In the meanwhile, the frequent tantrums of India have portrayed it as an irascible, neurotic regional actor that is not capable of shouldering the peaceful, constructive role that great powers are supposed to.
This episode tells us more than a mere policy dispute; it exposes the plate tectonic changes in regional and international diplomacy. The fact that EU leaders have gently but clearly declined to play from the India-supplied Pakistan bashing script, is a confirmation of a fact that should be obvious to many in Delhi but apparently is not, that India has lost its image of an aspiring global leader and has taken its place alongside regional disturb echo as a state whose foreign policy is dictated not by sober, strategic considerations but by electoral calculations and emotional grandstanding.
Pakistan has taken the long-term view and has focused on engaging rather than quarrelling and has proven that maturity and patience does indeed gain respect even among those who have always been pro-India. The situation is full of irony -the more India shrieks about Pakistan, the more the international community is ready to hear the reasonable tone of Islamabad. Each un-diplomatic tirade by Indian leaders – instead of bullying the world into line, only helps to remind of the diminishing importance of Delhi and its increasing irrelevance.
The higher strategic picture cannot be ignored here. As India struggles to desperately smear Pakistan, Islamabad is being gradually accepted as a vital member in major international meeting. The UN, the OIC and, most recently, the European Union have all conveyed the message that Pakistan cannot be side-lined -that its views and interests deserve attention and consideration. This silent yet consistent approval can be well contrasted to the dramatic diplomatic act by India which appears to be aimed at winning the approval of the domestic audience rather than the international one.
The outcome is obvious, whereas Pakistan diplomatic force achieves tangible results, including the refusal of the EU to apply the terror labels and safeguarding the space of bilateral relations, Indian ministries can do no more than turn beet-red and rave publicly. The contrast in style can hardly be more dramatic: one country succeeding due to maturity and moderation; the other falling apart under the pressure of own obsession and insecurity. In fact, when even a conventional friend like the European Union is not willing to support India in its anti-Pakistan rhetoric, the consequence is far reaching and disturbing to the Indian foreign policy. It is one thing to suffer a tactical setback, it is another to get humiliated strategically and reveal the hollow nature of the entire foreign policy vision that Modi had. Indian leaders have long placed their bets on the so-called Terrorist narrative, thinking that it would help them to unite the international community against Pakistan. Rather, the exact reverse has occurred: the world has evolved, seeing the pointlessness and un-productivity of such zero-sum aggression, whereas Delhi has become stuck in an echo chamber of hate, of its own creation. The fact that EU has declined to declare Pakistan a terror sponsor is not merely another hopeless episode in Indian diplomacy; it is the ceremonial interment of a ten-year-old exercise in character assassination that has earned India nothing but exasperation and isolation.
This drama has a psychological aspect too. With every un diplomatic scream of Delhi about Pakistan, every hysterical allegation and exaggerated outrage international opinion is becoming more inclined to believe the case of Islamabad. Such a sober reaction by the EU highlights a basic yet effective fact that in its frantic attempts at demonizing Pakistan, India has managed to become its own worst enemy as well as the unintentional best spokesman of Pakistan. All the name calling and political theatrics cannot hide this fact to the experienced diplomats of the world, that know the distinction between posturing and policy, between propaganda and principle.
Every time India is crushed under the burden of its own rhetoric, Pakistan is raised – not by bombast, but by a silent self-control and a diplomatic restraint. So, the judgment of the international community is loud and clear. Pakistan has come out of this episode with its diplomatic capital increased, its relations with the EU unharmed, its refusal of the terror tag restated and its bilateral room safeguarded. India on the contrary is becoming more isolated, their foreign policy is in shambles and their ministers have been reduced to undignified and ineffective rants. The difference between the two neighbours cannot be more striking – as well as the result more emphatic. This is a much-needed triumph of Pakistani statecraft and a massive loss to Indian hate-mongering. And until New Delhi fundamentally reviews its foreign policy stance – substituting spleen with outreach, hysterics with modesty, this pattern of foreign policy ineptitude is likely to persist, at an increasingly heavy price to Indian prestige and strategic advantage. In an ultimate verdict then, the message that the world has conveyed to India and one that she can no longer afford to overlook is that the politics of hate and hysteria do not have a role in mature international diplomacy.