Pakistan policy must rest on positioning, not isolation

Opinion Pakistan policy must rest on positioning, not isolation The key to negate Pakistan's influence would be to create India's already existing security and defence relations stronger.

Key points

• 4 min readSep 7, 2026 06: 31 AM IST First published on: Sep 7, 2026 at 06: 31 AM IST.
• World leaders during the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek on September 1, 2026.
• The recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit offers a useful reminder of the limits of India's efforts to isolate Pakistan at the global level.
• A strategy focused solely on isolating Pakistan will not prove efficient for India.
• Saudi Arabia, too, has a long history of relations with Pakistan, yet India was still able to develop consistent relations with it, owing to economic and strategic convergences.

World leaders during the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek on September 1, 2026. (Photo: ANI via X/@narendramodi). Written by: Udayan Das.

Notably, the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit offers a useful reminder of the limits of India's efforts to isolate Pakistan at the global level. Pakistan assumed the rotational presidency of a multilateral organisation which has counter-terrorism at its heart. Is Pakistan undercutting India's relations with other states? Is India adequately expanding ties with other states to counter this? Strategically speaking, India's policies have the right objectives. Weakening Islamabad on the global stage, ensuring sanctions, and rallying condemnation are common playbooks of statecraft. Where it is going wrong is in assuming that it is straightforward to effectively isolate a state. Interests drive state policy more than morality does. States are far more probable to react to an problem that affects their interests directly. Therefore, Pakistan remains a bilateral difficulty for India, and other states share little overlapping concern with New Delhi.

States additionally produce themselves useful to others despite their differences. Take, for instance, US relations with Pakistan in the post-Cold War era. Washington has been harsh on Islamabad on a number of occasions, particularly on the problem of terrorism, and aid has been granted, suspended, curtailed, and restarted repeatedly. Yet the Americans remained engaged with Pakistan, largely since of their interests in Afghanistan. Nor has the Iran war been the first time Pakistan mediated between states; recall the famed realignment of the US and China during the Cold War. Flexible diplomacy can align interests despite moral complaints, and for states, that matters more.

Meanwhile, a strategy focused solely on isolating Pakistan will not prove efficient for India. A more effective strategy is to steadily strip it of its ability to limit India's options. Consider the relationship between India and the US over the last two decades. Washington did not abandon its engagement with Islamabad, but its engagement with New Delhi grew throughout a broad set of matters, involving economic, security, and political convergences. Meanwhile, the de-hyphenation of India and Pakistan took place during this period. The US was additionally seen as decisively favouring India when it came to South Asia as of its overarching regional interests. The key to negate Pakistan's influence would be to create India's already existing security and defence relations stronger. Donald Trump's tenure so far has not been the best for India; nevertheless, the deep strategic ties over the last two decades allow some consistency and reliability for India-US relations. This includes the existing problems of the defence partnership, critical and emerging technologies, along with fronts like the 2+2 and the Quad.

Saudi Arabia, too, has a long history of relations with Pakistan, yet India was still able to develop consistent relations with it, owing to economic and strategic convergences. In both cases, India's positioning rendered Pakistan's equations with these states largely irrelevant.

Isolation does not happen in a vacuum, but in relative terms. If one wishes to isolate a rival, stronger positioning is the key. A measure of this is when other states do the de-hyphenation, choose to engage with you more, and find greater interest in siding with you in a crisis. If these boxes are ticked, the rival is already isolated, regardless of official statements. This strategy should extend in multilateral forums like SCO and BRICS where India's relations with other states need to be aligned.

For context, the writer teaches in the Department of Political Science, St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata and is a visiting fellow, Asian Confluence, Shillong. © The Indian Express Pvt Ltd.

Taken together, the developments around pakistan policy must rest on positioning, not isolation point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.