With China already blocking India’s bid at the United Nations to get Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar, the mastermind of the Pathankot terror attack, banned, an Indian research Fellow at Brookings Institution said that New Delhi and Washington would work together to tackle the issue even if they don’t get China on board.
“We saw the Home Ministry (India) sign with its US counterpart recently to share such information about intelligence and I think you will see India and US working together to tackle the issue of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)’s and Lashkar-e-Taiba even if they might not get China to come on board,” said Tanvi Madan, Fellow at Brookings Institution and Director, the India Project.
She was of the opinion that China would not be mentioned directly about backing Masood, but somewhere the topic might surely arise when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Barack Obama meet on June 7.
“I don’t think you will hear China mentioned directly but I do think there will be an indication of the facts that the two countries will share counter terrorism as a priority. I think while we often talk about defence cooperation. What doesn’t get attention but has moved forward quite a bit is homeland security cooperation especially on terrorism and intelligence sharing,” she added.
On China determined to block India from becoming a Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) member at the upcoming meeting, she said that New Delhi would want U.S. to do more to persuade Beijing.
“In terms of the NSG issue in particular you won’t necessary hear China mentioned. But what think India wants to see and what perhaps we might see is for the US to do more to persuade countries like China.
Now it’s possible that China will not be convinced. But I think short of that the goal is to make sure that China gets the sense that it might be isolated in the issue,” she said adding,“ So I think that’s where they want to reach. Ideally they would bring China on to the board.
But it will be part of discussion whether its terms of thinking about the south china sea, defence issue, security in the neigbourhood it will doubtless be part of the agenda.”
On her view on about the visit, she said that Prime Minister Modi’s engagement with a key constituency for India, U.S. Congress will be a big feature of visit.
“Particularly, in the last two years since Prime Minister Modi has taken office and made US relationship a priority for India. So, main agenda in the items for Prime Minister Modi is going to be engaging with the key constituency for India, the US Congress that’s going to be a big feature of this visit,” she said.
She added, “ The other second area is the people who is going to be engaging with the business leaders will want to make the case that his economical record from the last two years justifies optimism in the India economy.”