Policy Watch: The Indo-Pak global charm offensives
Have the two governments' global diplomacy tours worked?
Dear all,
Did you miss our flagship Ideas for India conference? See our little video about what you missed on Instagram or LinkedIn.
Member Akshay Walia does an excellent deep-dive this week into the UK-India Free Trade Agreement here. Akshay works as a freelance researcher, who focuses on foreign policy, human rights, and corporate sustainability due diligence issues.
Both the Indian and Pakistani governments have led breathless global charm offensives recently across several countries. Have they been effective?
An anticipated meeting at the G7 in Calgary between Donald Trump and Narendra Modi didn’t happen. Two days later, Trump hosted Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, for lunch at the White House, to India’s chagrin.
Scroll down for a deep-dive.
We’ve got some events coming up with journalist Rajdeep Sardesai (8 July), Monisha Advani (11 July) and some participation in the London Indian Film Festival (16 July onwards). Scroll down for more.
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Several congratulations this week are in order this week:
To Ketan Varia for publishing his first novel, Fusion of Reality. Aman, a forty-two-year-old year-old man of Nepalese heritage, has spent years building a life in a Western metropolis – only to find it quietly unravelling. But when asked to help organise his niece Kaya’s Buddhist wedding, he is drawn back into family traditions long kept at a distance.
To our Board Member Abhinay Muthoo for being awarded the Daniel Druckman Prize for Innovation in Negotiation by the European Negotiation Association for “integrating research wwith the practice of negotiation and conflict management.”
And to Mimisha Gandhi for officially graduating from the two-year AIB-CIBER Doctoral Academy, with the University of Leeds. Her ongoing PhD research focuses on understanding how SMEs' key decision-makers can improve their networking capabilities to facilitate successful internationalisation.
As well as to Simran Prajapati, who is now Strategy Manager at Monitor Deloitte. Her expertise lies in in sanctions and illicit finance, and the international affairs and diplomacy space.
Upcoming events
In Conversation With Rajdeep Sardesai | 6pm, 8 July | Find out more
Join us for an exclusive conversation with one of India’s most respected journalists and media commentators, Rajdeep Sardesai. This intimate session offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with a veteran who has played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of Indian broadcast journalism for over three decades.
He will be having a conversation with Bridge India about his career, how the media landscape is changing, and his peerless knowledge of Indian elections around the country. Attendees will also have the opportunity to get a signed copy of Rajdeep’s new book 2024: The Election That Surprised India.
When: 6pm arrivals, 6:30pm start, 8:00pm close | Mon 8 July
More info: Click here
Tickets: £0 Corporate Members, £10 Members, £15 Non-Members
In Conversation With Monisha Advani | 6pm, 8 July | Find out more
Join us for an exclusive conversation with a founder partner of one of India’s leading film production houses Emmay Entertainment. Since its inception in 2011, Emmay has grown to be among India’s top 5 production houses, serving over 20,000 direct and indirect hires annually, and audiences across theatrical and web platforms.
Just some of Emmay’s recent hits in the cinema and on leading streaming platforms include: Vedaa (with John Abraham), Mumbai Dairies, Rocket Boys, Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, Satyamev Jayate (John Abraham), The Emprire (Kunal Kapoor, Shabana Azmi), Bell Bottom (Akshay Kumar), Batla House (John Abraham), Indoo Ki Jawani (Kiara Advani), Baazaar (Saif Ali Khan), Katti Batti (Kangana Ranaut) and Lucknow Central (Farhan Akhtar).
Monisha will be having a conversation with Bridge India about her career, creating Indian stories, how streaming is changing the film landscape and how she sees the future of Hindi content in India.
When: 6pm arrivals, 6:30pm start, 8:00pm close | Fri 11 July
More info: Click here
Tickets: £0 Corporate Members, £10 Members, £15 Non-Members
London Indian Film Festival (16-23 July, BFI Southbank and BFI Imax | Find out more)
The UK’s premier such film festival, the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF), is back. LIFF runs July 16-23 at BFI Southbank and BFI Imax. The Birmingham Indian Film Festival runs July 17-23 at the Midlands Arts Centre.
Beyond film screenings, the festival will celebrate emerging British Asian talent through a new industry event developed in collaboration with RIFCO Theatre. The initiative aims to encourage more U.K. South Asians to enter the film industry while exploring co-production opportunities. This professional component will be accompanied by the festival’s popular program of British-Asian shorts.
Asian Achievers Awards (Fri 19 Sept, London Hilton on Park Lane | Find out more)
The Nominations Deadline of Friday 4 July is fast approaching for the annual Asian Achievers Awards, which recognises the outstanding work of individuals from the South Asian community in the UK. Established in 2000, they are consistently recognised as the most prestigious and highly respected such Awards, and featured on BBC News and Sky News. The Awards take place on Friday 19 September at the London Hilton on Park Lane. If you know someone deserving from across business, media, sports and community service, nominate them today.
Benefits for Bridge India Members: Individual Members: £50 off tickets | Corporate Members: £100 off tickets | Corporate Member Plus: 2 x complimentary tickets, 25% off additional tickets | Strategic Partner: 4 x complimentary tickets, 50% off additional tickets.
Policy Watch: The Ind-Pak global charm offensives
Multi-party parliamentary delegations from India and Pakistan have travelled the world, including stopping in London, in the wake of the Pahalgam attack. The Indian delegation had a busy visit to London (video here), meeting mainly Indian diaspora and Indian-origin groups in Parliament.
The delegations made one thing clear: both countries blamed the other, seeking to make the case for their side’s narrative. Dialogue is a dead end (for now), according to Chietigj Banerjee from Chatham House. Each resented any parallels or equivalency drawn between their positions. Both trumpeted their battlefield successes while downplaying their losses. Both emphasised red lines (for India, another terror attack would trigger a war). India’s emphasis was on framing Pakistan as the epicentre of global terrorism.
Some Western governments have been unnerved by India’s red lines, and are wary of jeopardising counter-terrorism co-operation with Pakistan.
The problem for India is that Western powers are occupied with the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine and Israel-Iran conflicts, to care as much as India might want, about that framing.
Banerjee says:
“In this context, the world tours by parliamentarians from India and Pakistan appear more focused on appeasing domestic political constituencies than any genuine effort aimed at shifting global public opinion. There was more emphasis on dictating each country’s position rather than engaging in a genuine dialogue.”
And to that end, the tours did satisfy domestic audiences.
Pakistan says Trump helped avert a war, India says he didn’t
Trump took credit for the ceasefire, despite India’s stubborn denials. A billion-dollar IMF bailout package for Pakistan was approved within hours of the 10 May ceasefire, despite protests from New Delhi. The US has also been silent on Pakistan’s culpability.
But the Pakistan government has decided to "formally recommend" Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, in "recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis" (although the very next day Trump launched attacks in Iran without Congressional approval, hardly a check-box for the Peace Prize).
Looking down, from the moral high ground
India’s TV media made a big deal about how incredible its cross-party delegations’ international outreach was: India is morally right, Pakistan is “Terroristan”, all parties in India are united against this terror, was the gist.
Pakistan argued its military action was triggered by India’s military operation and that India hasn’t offered the “smoking gun of Pakistani complicity in the terror attack”, as Banerjee puts it. In a meeting in London, Bilawal Bhutto highlighted the fact that two of the terrorists were local Indians. He said they have tried to engage in talks, but India refuses.
The Economist agrees that “India has yet to provide sufficient evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the April 22nd attack.”
Channel 4 News’ Krishnan Gurumurthy asked BJP spokesperson Tuhin Sinha about the evidence here, to which Sinha replied “No, no, it doesn’t matter.”
Trump’s lunch with Field Marshal Munir, and the realpolitik with Iran
On June 10th the commander of America’s Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, described Pakistan as a “phenomenal” counter-terrorism partner in a Senate hearing. S. Paul Kapur, the nominee to be the State Department’s top South Asia official, told another Senate hearing that he would “pursue security co-operation” while seeking trade and investment opportunities with Pakistan.
Field Marshal Munir wasn’t just having lunch with Trump in Washington to talk about India. Pakistan shares a border with Iran, which is a far greater priority for Trump.
Former Indian Ambassador Mahesh Sachdev writes for NDTV:
“Last-minute offer of an unprecedented White House lunch and the host's expression of effusive love for Pakistan and its Field Marshal are is a tell-tale signs that the two sides have agreed to pursue a comprehensive joint strategy on Iran, deemed important enough in Washington to risk riling New Delhi.”
Nevertheless, his preferential treatment is a setback for India.
The US needs Pakistan onside for what is likely coming in Iran. Pakistan's staging post for US forces would be preferable to both Washington and the Gulf Arabs, who might not want to pick a fight with Iran and its proxies.
But in return for this help, Islamabad will have its own demands, including financial compensation, re-hyphenation with India and a long-term strategic partnership in any future deal with Iran. Whisper it quietly, but it might also de facto mean the US chooses to ignores some border intrusions into India.
For India, that means redoubling its diplomatic efforts. And if a future Parliamentary public diplomacy trip happens, then focusing that on engaging beyond the diaspora and Indian-origin Councillors and Parliamentarians.
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The Bridge India Team
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