The White House took Kashmir off special envoy Richard Holbrooke’s Afghanistan-Pakistan agenda after India protested and sent a demarche to Washington.
New Delhi was unhappy with Holbrooke’s frequent involvement in talks about Kashmir. But the Indian government did not publicise the demarche it sent out to the US in this regard. It was left to the prime minister’s special envoy Shyam Saran to spell it out.
Saran let slip the fact during a Q&A session after a talk on the impact of the current global economic meltdown at the Habitat Centre on Saturday evening.
Reiterating that India must guard against the new protectionism which was creeping into the US, Saran underlined the importance of making sure that New Delhi does not take things lying down. He then mentioned the demarche which stopped Kashmir from becoming part of Richard Holbrooke’s beat.
Saran said the economic shake-up in the world would have its ripple affect on the international power structure, in which the US would have to share the centre stage with other players such as China, Russia, Brazil, EU and India. The former foreign secretary also mentioned the new US administration’s effort to co-opt China to play a major role in rescuing the world economy.
Beijing is more than willing to play ball as long as it gets something in return. This would mean China partnering the US in solving crucial problems. Already hectic diplomatic moves are on to get China aboard, with talk of G2 – US and China – taking the lead.
