00:00That's true. That has been the story of India-Pakistan relations. It's very cyclical.
00:07Each time there's a forward movement, there's an accident or there is an act of terrorism.
00:14And terrorism is the deal breaker in this relationship. So, there was positivity earlier in the month
00:23when the external affairs minister himself travelled to Islamabad
00:29and India was sending a strong signal that we want to stabilize the relationship.
00:35There were no formal bilateral conversations but at least there was nothing that was very negative that happened.
00:45And the hope was that there would be some forward positive movement but the acts of terrorism
00:55that we see continuing in Srinagar are always a big threat to this relationship.
01:02Yes, I think Pakistan is going through a huge poly-crisis. And Pakistan is
01:07facing a huge security challenge particularly to its western border.
01:13It is also facing a huge economic challenge. It's gone into its 24th IMF program.
01:19And the long-term economic issues have not been settled. It's also going through political churn.
01:26Because the civil-military relationship is also not very good.
01:32Imran Khan, the former prime minister continues to be in jail.
01:36So, Pakistan itself is in a fairly unstable phase at this point of time.
01:42But there is an impulse at least to try to stabilize the relationship with India.
01:51And hopefully that impulse will prevail rather than the impulse to try and change the narrative in Kashmir
02:02and try and demonstrate that there is no normalcy in Kashmir which India is trying to achieve.
02:09The Canada relationship and the turn it took this week comes as a surprise.
02:16This is an irony because it's actually a very strong relationship between India and western power.
02:24Both are democracies. The geopolitical interests are aligned because
02:31Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy considers India a critical partner.
02:37So, I think this is a story of a mishandled and mismanaged security problem that could have been handled much better.
02:47From the Indian side, the security issue has been there for decades.
02:53Of the presence of extremists and anti-India elements who get a lot of space in Canada.
03:00From Canada's point of view, the allegation is about India's role in the killing of one such person.
03:08So, I think this should have been handled at the security level rather than at the political level.
03:14And when it is handled at a political level then the decibels become higher
03:22and these extreme steps like expelling diplomats have taken.
03:28And I hope that better sense prevails and this relationship also stabilizes a bit.
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