Pakistan’s narrow view of Afghanistan has cost it dearly

FOR MORE THAN THREE YEARS, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been locked in a cycle of tension, cross-border strikes and fighting punctuated by sporadic attempts at de-escalation. Outside powers including China, Qatar and Turkey have periodically stepped in to facilitate talks, but none have yielded a durable settlement. Diplomatic engagements stall, confidence-building measures collapse and bilateral relations return to familiar patterns of mistrust and coercion.

Islamabad has consistently framed the impasse as a security problem, pointing to the Afghan Taliban’s alleged tolerance of, if not support for, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group based in Afghanistan that has claimed responsibility for numerous terror attacks in Pakistan. European Union envoys have characterised Pakistan’s demand that the Taliban act against TTP sanctuaries as “legitimate”. Kabul, in turn, has denied harbouring militant groups that target Pakistan – a claim the United Nations Security Council has rejected in a recent report. This security-centric framing, while consequential, does not fully explain why negotiations between the two countries repeatedly fail or why external mediation has proven ineffective.