Another good idea

This good idea is to improve relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan:  a Kabul statement acknowledging that it regards Afghanistan’s borders as fixed and not to be changed.

What good would that do, you might ask?

Here’s the story:  the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is known as the Durand line.  The more than 1600-mile boundary was fixed in 1893 by agreement between Durand, the Foreign Secretary of British India, and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.  Islamabad has accepted the Durand line as the international border with Afghanistan, based on the colonial antecedent.  Kabul has not.

When I was in Kabul a few years ago calling on a key aide to President Karzai, I suggested that Afghanistan might accept the Durand line as a way of improving relations with Pakistan.  His answer was telling:  he would not want, he said, to “foreclose options for future generations.”  This is not a declaration of war, but it is a statement that suggests Afghanistan has ambitions to control the part of Pakistani territory where ethnic Pashtuns live.  Pashtuns are the plurality ethnic group in Afghanistan; they live on both sides of the Durand line.

Pakistanis will often say they need a degree of control over Afghanistan to provide “strategic depth” in their conflict with India.  India’s friendly relations with President Karzai were on display this week as the Indian prime minister signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Kabul.  This unnerves Pakistanis, who regard the conflict with India as their major national security threat.  It is an important reason for Islamabad’s now evident reluctance to do as much to counter the Taliban and Al Qaeda as Washington would like.

I don’t know two countries whose border is subject to disagreement that have good relations (please let me know if you do–I’m looking for an exception to this rule).  Without an agreed (and physically demarcated) border and with a single ethnic group dominant on both sides, there is the real possibility of irredentist activity that threatens a neighboring state’s territorial integrity.  Pakistani fears about Afghanistan would be significantly reduced if Kabul were to signal its acceptance of the Durand line.

So that is why it would be a good idea for Afghanistan to accept the Durand line, improving its relations with Pakistan and acquiring, as quid pro quo, stronger action against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.  Washington should be working hard to this end.