The United States President Donald Trump lately announced the charter for Board of Peace. The board was originally formed to overlook the rebuilding of Gaza after almost two years of genocidal war by Israel on the Gaza Strip . During the signing of documents at the annual meeting of World Economic Forum , Donald Trump claimed that once this board is formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do,‘. Moreover, Trump extended his talk by saying that peacekeeping initiatives will not be limited to Gaza, it will elongate across other global conflict zones as well. Representatives of 19 countries including the Pakistan’s prime minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif joined the conference and signed the board’s founding charter.
Along with several European countries, New Delhi’s absence was noticed during the signing of Board’s founding charter. The hesitation reflects to the fact that this charter could bring the Kashmir issue under the new international norms in the future. Donald Trump has repeatedly offered to mediate Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan specially after the 2025 May crisis. India is forcefully trying to claim the issue under the bilateral terms. In this situation, the newly formed initiative has raised several concerns in New Delhi. A recent editorial in the Indian newspaper The Hindu claimed that Pakistan’s signing the Board’s Charter is a warning sign for India. Trump’s self-styled global peacemaker role can eventually draw the Kashmir’s issue under the Board’s mandate in future.
Thus, India’s hesitation towards the Peace Board’s initiative is not surprising rather it shows consistency towards their engraved political posture.
Historically, India has rejected the third party mediation efforts many times. India claims that there is no scope for third party involvement as Kashmir is its integral part. It claims that the issue will be solved on bilateral terms with Pakistan. It refers to the initiatives such as Shimla Agreement, in 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999. It claims that any external inclusion harms the Indian sovereignty and the negotiating position of India. However, the attention of international authorities has been drawn towards the Kashmir region in the last decade. India’s revocation of the special constitutional status of Kashmir in 2019 lead to noticing of several Human right forums and international media. From India’s policy lens at the present time, linking itself to a peace initiative of this genre is disastrous. It can board the Kashmir issue to international forums. Eventually, the long standing claims of India about the bilateral measures will be eroded.
Concessions to Kashmir would ultimately trigger a communal backlash in India. The concern is that any relief towards the Kashmir issue will alter India’s foreign policy aspects. In long term, India will have to exhibit relief on certain sensitive issues. Moreover, India’s assumptions about dictating the South Asian politics and portraying itself as an emerging global power also limits its approach regarding involvement of international actors in its regional affairs. It uses its distancing policy as a strategic autonomy factor. Through which it shows that It will never agree upon peace initiatives at the cost of its territorial claims. India has extended stronger ties with Israel over the recent period and it elaborates its security and strategic concerns over joining the board of peace. Further, India is one of the founding members of United Nations. It claims that the proposed board of peace will undermine the work of United Nations. New Delhi appreciate Trump’s work but will never agree upon an initiative which serve as an alternative to United Nation’s work.
Ranjit Roy, Former Indian ambassador to Nepal and Vietnam explicitly talked about the situation. He said that the Indian dilemma has increased and it won’t be easy for India to take decision on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’. He further said that risk in joining the peace board is high. It doesn’t matter if India accepts or rejects it, the initiative will still have an impact. The exquisite situation of trade talks between India and U.S may go downhill from here as the rejection towards peace board will eventually bring Trump’s dis-pleasure, the same sort of situation was seen in case of French President.
India distancing itself from the peace initiatives does not eliminate the Kashmir issue from global forums. Trump’s board of peace has highlighted a very critical stance in context of Indian political posture that the Kashmir issue continues to shape the global diplomacy measures of India. Crisis management discussion in South Asia is incomplete without discussing about the centrality of Jammu and Kashmir issue. The issue has been a critical trigger for crisis between India and Pakistan. The unilateral move of India during 2019 in abrogating the article 370 was seen as a distinct coercive move by Pakistan. The scope for bilateral talks was diminished following the abeyance of Indus Water Treaty in 2025. The issue continues to shape the strategic psychology of both states. India needs to understand the fact that silence and avoidance measures will not contain the unresolved issue for indefinite period. Distancing itself from peace forums may secure the short-term benefits but for long run and broader South Asian region’s peace perspective, confidence building measures are needed. For Pakistan, newly formed peace forum should be seen as an opportunity to revive the Kashmir mediation cause at global level. Strategic silence measures of New Delhi are outdated as they may delay internationalization of the issue but can’t resolve the dispute itself.
Be the first to comment