AFGHANISTAN–PAKISTAN RELATION AND ITS IMPLICATION ON

REGIONAL GEOPOLITICS

Ahmad Khalid AZIZI

Department of Political Science and International Relation, Istanbul Aydin University, Istanbul,
Turkey

ABSTRACT

The research aimed to investigate the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan after the 9/11
incident. The present study is making a serious effort to identify the root causes of this apprehensive
movement of bilateralism. The research also aims at developing a strategic position for Pakistan in the
current state of affairs. The political aspects and external environment for both countries are discussed
in the research. In addition, the research is also looking forward to analyzing the impact of other
regional actors including Iran, China, Russia, India and Central Asian nations on Pakistan and
Afghanistan relationship. Moreover, the important question of the thesis is if the relationship between
Pakistan and Afghanistan will maintain a stable and healthy relationship in near future. The research is
more analytical as it involves the historical perspectives, literature review, main challenges and the
involvement of different international players in this bilateral relation. The researcher collects
secondary data to conduct this research. The secondary sources include for the research are the
journals, articles, websites, reports, websites and scholarly publications. The existence of Afghanistan
in a geo-strategic location attracted the foreign countries and they intervened and influenced during
several periods. In addition, the economic dependence of the country also made it easier for foreign
countries to intervene in different matters of Afghanistan. For establishing a peaceful and friendly
relationship between the two countries, it is crucial for the important players to get involved to show
their honest interest. However, the foreign players are not successful in doing so which resulted in
volatility and disorder in the whole region. The actions from Pakistan jeopardized the relationship with
Afghanistan and it can be concluded that there is a long way to maintain healthy and stable
relationship with each other.

Keywords: 9/11 Incident, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Regional Geopolitics.

I. INTRODUCTION
Pakistan and Afghanistan have a long history that goes back far beyond the partition of the
subcontinent. Although both countries share almost the same culture, ethnicity, linguistic and
religion, the relationship cannot be defined as friendly between both of them. There was a time
when the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan got worse due to some argumentative
concerns-the internal divisions and external powers magnified the historical legacies (Siddiqi,
2008). In addition, lack of trust and passive resentment have also intensified the problems
between the countries. Political changes in Afghanistan have always influenced region in
general and Pakistan, particularly because the opposition has been shown under the different
regimes in Afghanistan.

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After Pakistan came into being, the country faced a major issue when Afghanistan was the only
country that voted against the admission of Pakistan to the United Nations (UN) because of the
claims over the Durand Line. The involvement of India in the internal matters of Pakistan to
form instability through Afghanistan has also been a major issue in Pakistan -Afghanistan
relationship. The partnership of India and Afghanistan became a topic of concern at both
western and eastern borders. India has always supported the leaders of Afghani stan that opposed
Pakistan except for the Taliban regime. In fact, the foreign policy of Pakistan and India has
always included Afghanistan for opposing each other.

The relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan has always been a center of attention of
many scholars and researchers. There is a number of studies which focused on different aspects
that influence the Pakistan and Afghanistan relationship (Siddiqi, 2011). These studies
highlighted different aspects including historical background, Taliban re gime, etc. but few
studies have discussed the Pakistan and Afghanistan relationship after 9/11 incidents. The
dreadful incident of September 11, 2001, transformed the world and negatively influenced
Pakistan as the country found itself between the devil and the deep sea (Gartenstein-Ross &
Vassefi, 2012). This important gap in the literature motivated the researcher to study the topic
thoroughly and address this issue by conducting this research. The research will provide a
comprehensive overview of different aspects that affect the relationship between Pakistan and
Afghanistan.

The paper aims to investigate the Pakistan and Afghanistan relationship after the 9/11 incident.
The present study is making a serious effort to identify the root causes of this app rehensive
movement of bilateralism. The research also aims at developing a strategic position for Pakistan
in the current state of affairs. The political aspects and external environment for both countries
will also be highlighted in the research. The research aims to answer the following question if
Afghanistan and Pakistan maintain a stable and healthy relationship in near future, and the
hypotheses of the research is that Afghanistan and Pakistan will maintain a stable and healthy
relationship in near future.

II. METHODOLOGY
The research is an attempt to highlight the dynamics of the relationship between Afghanistan
and Pakistan. The research is more analytical as it involves the historical perspectives, literature
review, main challenges and the involvement of different international players in this bilateral
relation. The researcher use qualitative research method to conduct this research and the data
collected for the study is included from the secondary sources. The secondary sources include
for the research are the journals, articles, websites, reports, websites and scholarly publications.
The research also highlights the implications on the regional geo-politics therefore, the data is

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included by the authentic sources. In order to avoid biasness, the res earcher included the neutral
authors for the analysis which means the analysis will be conducted by taking the perspective of
the neutral authors and researchers and will not include the researchers of Afghanistan and
Pakistan.

III. LITERATURE
Mistrust and doubts are two central aspects of Prisoner’s Dilemma. Mistrust refers to not
trusting a party and believing that the motive of the party in question is to get benefit from the
collaboration rather than paying the favor back. The period of Cold War can be de scribed by the
incidence where suspicion and mistrust were the major reason behind the rivalry between the
USA and the Soviet Union, thus, this led the both countries to take offensive actions against the
other country. A fact cannot be denied that countries can establish peach if there is a consent
between two actors. Whereas, in case a country believes that the opposing state has a hidden
scheme and is not willing to maintain friendly relations, it results in conflicts and chaos (Kydd,
2000). Mistrust is the factor which impedes friendly relationship between the countries as it does
among two people. Different scholars including Herz, Hobbes and Thucydides has focused on
the chaotic structure of the politics all around the world which establishes misunders tanding and
mistrust between the countries, hinders cooperation and forms the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

The achievement cooperation in the condition of mistrust is in contradiction of reality.

Consequently, it turned out very complex for both the countries to es tablish trust and they
perceived the intentions of each other very negatively.Researchers have broadly examined the
causes and reasons of mistrust and suspicion between the countries.

The hunt of security and power maximization at the expense of other countries results in risk,
mistrust and also results the countries to jump into the arms race, hindering the trust level even
the states wish to collaborate (Schmidt, 2008). In this type of condition, achieving cooperation
becomes very complex in the international politics and international relation. The theory of
Prisoner’s Dilemma fits well in the situation of Pakistan and Afghanistan relationship. The
theory is interesting, pioneering and examines the strength and weakness of cooperation.
Different studies have highlighted that mistrust and insecurity are two important highlights of
the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Robert Jervis showed that when the conflicting forces work together in
a Prisoner’s Dilemma situation, one country always perceive the cooperation coming f rom the
other party with doubts and uncertainties; any aspect comes from one state is always perceived
with doubts. Moreover, if a country take interest in any ongoing problem, it results in the
opponent country to make a strategy in contrary to the expectation of other party (Jervis, 1988).

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Relying on one another (for e.g. in a jail situation), the aim is to maximize the gains, without
any kind of concerns, and it results in a zero-sum game. In the case of Prisoner’s Dilemma,
Afghanistan and Pakistan have two alternative options which include to harm or to cooperate
with each other, no matter which strategy they follow. A relationship can be effective if there is
compromise and it is certainly better than defect. When trying to harm each other, the countri es
do worse. Here is the dilemma for both the countries. The idea of mutual benefits and
safeguarding each other against the other forces them towards security dilemma which further
leads into Prisoner’s Dilemma. Both of the states use their resources to t he fullest for the goal
achievement that lack cooperation. Each country has different decisions; they lack the complete
details regarding the other country’s intentions, and in this scenario, insecurity and risk prevails.
In a Prisoner’s Dilemma, strategy and decisions made by the countries are dependent on the
experiences of mistrust which hinder Afghanistan and Pakistan from two -sided relationship.

There exists an imperfect and instable relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Individual rationality controls the situation and makes one state more selfish and doubtful,
which further leads to mistrust. Mutual rationality takes a step backward as cooperation is
doubted to lead into losses than the win-win condition for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

IV. THE LONG HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN

1. Pashtunistan and the establishment of Pakistan
The eastern border of Afghanistan was established in 1893. A number countries especially
Britain has a major interest in that particular region because their dire need to safeguard the
jewel in the colonial crown, British India. Abdur Rehman, who was the amir of Afghanistan,
rejected the offer of British for the Afghanistan and Indian border, forcing the amir to surrender
“his insignificant domination over the communities of Pashtun” outer the boundary preferred by
the British rulers (Barfield, 2010). The efforts made by the Ameer of Afghanistan to object the
separation of Pashtun in this way cannot be diminished. In the past, the concept of Afghan was
only referred to belong from the Pashtun community. As stated by Spain (1954, p. 30), who was
the cultural affairs general at the American embassy in Pakistan, the boundary between
Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent i.e. Durand Line left the majority of the people closely
connected by past, culture and blood on both of the sides. However, due to the risk of economic
insufficiencies, Abdur Rehman had to give up and agreed to the proposal. Afghanistan used to
be acknowledged as the independent country by the time when Pakistan came into being in
1947, and not a specific reason was there to believe that Pakistan was established to last.
Pakistan came into being after lots of struggle and shed of blood which did not result in the
existence of two different countries but also prompted the rivalry between both India and
Pakistan till date.

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Right after the establishment of Pakistan, Afghanistan also proposed that there should be a
separate state for the Pashtuns which will be referred to as “Pashtunistan”–the land of Pashtuns.
The proposal was to enable Pashtuns in the north-west part of Afghanistan so they can select to
be an independent country. Although the scope of the proposed Pashtunistan changed over the
period of time, the demand of Afghanistan repeatedly included around more t han West Pakistan,
where the majority of the part was dominated by Baloch people.

The historical connection between Afghanistan and the Pashtun would most probably command
a merger between two groups. Even if Pakistan never agreed to the proposal of a separate state
for Pashtuns, Afghanistan has majorly risked the entitlement to the area if Pakistan was not
succeeded to last longer. The merger of Pashtunistan and other area of Baloch dominance into
Afghanistan would most likely to resolve an important issue which is that Afghanistan is a
country which is surrounded by land and have no access to water. The areas with the Baloch
dominance would provide accessibility to the Arabian Sea.

2. Afghanistan’s Early Incursions into Pakistan

After few years of the establishment of Pakistan, Spain (1954, p. 35), who was the cultural
affairs general at the American embassy in Pakistan, stated that the link between Pakistan -
Afghanistan has reached to one problem which is Pashtunistan. The interference of other
countries jeopardized the relationship between both countries. Afghanistan did not vote in the
favor of Pakistan to admit in the UN and the reason was that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa part of
Pakistan should not be acknowledged as a portion of Pakistan till the time when Pasht uns had
been provided by the choice to pick the freedom (Rubin & Siddique, 2006). Despite the
objection of Afghanistan, Pakistan became the part of the UN. This has intensified the rivalry
between both countries. After that, a state of war began between th e countries. In 1950, Pakistan
blamed that tribes of Afghanistan made attacks on the northern part and in that case, Afghan
troops were also included in those attacks who sneaked in Pakistan 30 miles north of
Baluchistan. In the defense, Afghan leaders refused to the claims made by Pakistan and stated
that they have no involvement in those attacks and it was Pashtuns who made those attacks for
the demand of separate state (Gartenstein-Ross & Vassefi, 2012).The next wave of the problem
between Pakistan-Afghanistan arouses in the era 1960 to 1961 when the clash related to the
fresh border came up. The leaders of Pakistan planned to attack on the country by preparing
their army (Gartenstein-Ross & Vassefi, 2012). During late 1960, the forces of Afghan entered
in Bajaur area of Pakistan. The state of Pakistan blamed Afghanistan that these irregular forces
conflicted with the local tribes and escaped after suffering substantial causalities. The official
news companies of Afghanistan referred this scenario as the major battle but ultimately it broke
out between both sides (Guardian, 1960). However, since instability had serious enconomic

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consequences for bith countries Iranian leaders to maintain a cooperation between Pakistan -
Afghanistan in 1963. The peace was established between the two nations until the regime of
Muhammad Daood Khan who also became a PM of Afghanistan during the crisis of 1955. Both
countries enjoyed a peaceful relationship until Muhammad Daood Khan removed King
Mohammed Zahir Shah, who was also his cousin, from his position on 17 July 1973.

Daood always supported the concept of Pashtunistan and the desire for the separate state
escalated the fall of rapprochement. The era of Daood gave refuge, supports and arms to
Pashtuns and Baloch groups. These actions of Baluchistan gave a major challenge to Pakistan.
According to Rizwan Hussain who was the researcher at The Australian National University,
stated that the actions of Afghanistan became a major threat to the uprightness of Pakistan since
East Pakistan separated from Pakistan (Roy, 2002). Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was also the
president of Pakistan, proposed a two-part responsive strategy where the first strategy was
inclined to overpower separatist revolution in Pakistani border. On the other han d, the second
strategy was inclined to support extremist groups in Afghanistan. This case was similar to
Afghanistan where they aided the extremist community in Pakistan. The Islamist groups of
Afghanistan who got the backing from Pakistan during the period included Burhanuddin
Rabbani and Gulbuddin Hikmatyar.

The support to the Islamist group provided by Pakistan was because Pakistan believed that the
groups with the association with religion would be less likely to harm anyone and would be
supporting ethnic-nationalist requirements that would help in making the policy favoring
Pakistan (Fange, 1989) and would be unfriendly towards India. These assumptions were proven
as accurate like Taliban in 1990s.

3. Post 9/11 incident

The 9/11 incident shook every corner of the world and affected the relationship of Afghanistan
and Pakistan. When the U.S president Bush stated that Either you are with us, or you are with
the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism
will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime” (Simon, 2006, p. 201). The made
Pakistan to be in a position where it has to either stand with USA in the war against terrorism or
either labelled as pro-Taliban by opposing US (Wagner, 2012).

Pakistan chose to take side of USA and provided support for logistics, flight passages,
intelligence and rescue to the US militants on the attack over Afghanistan in 2001. Pakistan
played as significant part in the war between U.S. and Taliban. The defeat of Taliba n in
Afghanistan changed the dynamics of the whole country and paved the way for other countries
to intervene in Afghanistan to safeguard their interests (Waldman, 2010). Pakistan supported the
temporary setup and Hamid Karzai visited Pakistan in February 2002 to prolong the friendly

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relationship between both countries. Soon the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan
started declining due to the conspiracies of the cabinet members of Northern Alliance (Katzman,
2013). This mistake lead to the disaster as it instigated the Afghanistan insurgency. Another
conspiracy by Bonn tuned in a mistake was not involving Pakistan in any reconstruction task
(Khan, 2011). On the other hand, India took this opportunity to intensify the strategic interests
against Pakistan. After that, India got a stage in the form of Afghanistan to carry out activities
in Baluchistan through Balochi revolutionists, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and FATA to threaten
Pakistan (Ganguly, 2012).

V. PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN RELATIONSHIP

1. Pakistan: Internal Politics and External Threats
Pakistan came into being in 1947. Since its inception, the country has been facing a number of
internal as well as external threats. Pakistan consists of four provinces and all of them follow
their own traditions, culture, and language. They have been struggling hard for the rights and
identification. This led to a number of internal politics, civil war, tribal insurgencies, ethnic
struggles, sectarian fights and border fights. In addition to the threats of ethnicity and
inequitable division of resources, one of the most important threats faced by Pakistan is
religious insurgency.

Pakistan has been going through a number of internal threats and external challenges. The
internal threats include unstable institutions, poor governance, extremist groups and the ongoing
war against terrorism which makes the internal condition of the country very insecure and
instable (Grare, 2006). Apart from that, there are a great number of external threats faced by
Pakistan from which the challenge from the two important global actors i.e. the U.S. and India,
activities inside Afghanistan (Bakrania, 2017). Therefore, the major concern for Pakistan is the
security. For this reason, Pakistan always attempted to interfere in th e internal affairs of
Afghanistan to safeguard the national interest and to be safe itself from any type of risk.

2. Afghanistan: Internal Politics and External Threats

Afghanistan’s history is full of rivalry, civil wars, downfalls, interference of internat ional actors.
The last four decades has brought a number of threats to the country which created chaotic
situation in the country. There are a greater number of risks in the internal matters and condition
of Afghanistan. Consisted of different ethnic, majority of the conflicts arise due to the ethnic
discrimination as different ethnic group trying to dominate others. The Pashtun group has been
ruling the country since eighteenth century. They think that Pashtun group has kept major
functions of national authorities and consequently, the conflict always arises among the ethnic
groups for the power. Therefore, it is arguable that ethnicity has a huge role in the internal

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politics of Afghanistan as the political situation revolves around disputes on inter -ethnic
problems between the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazars and Uzbeks (Barfield, 2010).

Apart from the challenges brought by ethnic groups, another major challenge, which has been
faced by Afghanistan, is the politics of military groups. The alliance with the US a nd battled
against the Soviet Union and after that, they fought against the Taliban forces and Al -Qaeda.
When the Soviet Union defeated in 1989, the warlords along with their militias stepped forward
and began to battle with each other to take the charge so that their own motives can be achieved
and they get hold in the provinces then in the overall nation. Moreover, Afghanistan has always
been a hub for different international player due to the geo-strategic importance. They always
had their interference on the internal matter of Afghanistan.

3. Bone of Contention
The relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has a long history which is full of rivalry,
which provided a chance to the international actors for the interference and everlasting
instability. Both countries never maintained a healthy relationship due to the challenges which
can be considered as the bone of contentions by a number of political leaders and scholars
between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The dominance of mistrust in the bilateral relationship began in the days when Pakistan came
into being and when Afghanistan voted against Pakistan for the entry in UN. The reason why
Afghanistan did not vote in the favor of Pakistan is because the reason was that North West
Frontier Province (NWFP) part of Pakistan should not be acknowledged as a portion of Pakistan
till the time when Pashtuns had been provided by the choice to pick the freedom (Landler,
2010).

The Durand Line crosses the area which is covered by the Pashtun forces and Balochi
communities (Pineu & Fleschenberg, 2012). Since Pakistan came into being, the topic of border
has always brought tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It remained the cause of
disagreement related to the partition of Pashtun as Pakistan has shared the border w ith India
since it came into being. This major problem of the international border between Pakistan and
Afghanistan and the matter of Pashtuns on both Pakistan-Afghanistan have caused a state of
pressure and uncertainty between both countries which also raised a number of other challenges
including military clashes, bombing, fights between the police forces. In 2006, the President of
Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai provided the list of Taliban leaders to the President of Pakistan,
General Pervaiz Musharraf. The list included the name of Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden
who found their shelter in Pakistan. Musharraf refused the allegations and stated that there is no
Taliban leader living in Pakistan and the US also rejected the list.

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 4. Pakistan’s Change in Foreign Policy towards Afghanistan After 9/11
As a consequence of 9/11, Pakistan happened to face coercion from the US. It would not be
wrong to say that one of the segments of Pakistani society remained unconsumed. Not only for
the US, has the World changed for Pakistan too. Pakistani army-led government made a strong
commitment to counteract New Delhi ambition to play a role in US-led coalition in the war of
terror proclaimed to emerge from a training camp in Afghanistan nurtured by Taliban
government in Kabul. It made clear the national interest (Sugunakararaju, 2016).

Pakistan’s reversal of its Pro-Afghani foreign policy, providing all sort of support to stand its
commitment to accommodate US arbitration in Afghanistan, was shocking but unintentional.
This had to be done to meet the threats to economic, political and military out -turn for
Pakistan’s national security.

Musharraf, while defending the new Afghan policy he had made, said in an interview to BBC
on 1 October 2001, that the Afghan policy of Pakistan has always been righteous orientation.The
policy has been changed according to the changing conditions. The previous policy was for the
national interest and so was the one made later but it was just changed according to the
circumstances.

VI. KEY FINDINGS

1. Key findings on Afghanistan
Afghanistan has been successful in making progress in politics, judiciary, security and
economics in the last few years. However, there is no considerable amount of gains made and
they can be stated as insubstantial and changeable. In order to ensure long-term progress and
development, Afghanistan needs to maintain security, overcome corruption, bring principle of
law and proper supremacy to its people and endorse important econo mic and political
improvements (Fange, 1989). Due to this, a constant and stable development effort by foreign
players is required in Afghanistan.

 An inclusive political settlement:

Instable political activities with the lack of engagement from the expert’s side make the political
condition to the traditional rules with no innovative approach and frequent usage of violent
methods.

 Insecurity:

Insecurity has always been and will be a concern for Afghanistan. The state in the country has
moved into a new stage. As the international troops were removed, the Afghan National Security
Forces (ANSF) and the revolutionaries are now engaged in a contest. The conflicts made in
Afghanistan contain different type of people with their own interests and ambitions. Afghans

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from the security forces, functioning without the supervision of foreign troops and inescapable
exploitation and mistreatment, strains angers that nourishes the insurgency (Birkle et al., 2011).

 Afghan Forces:

There was a record-breaking number of casualties of Afghan forces in 2013. The forces moved
away from the places due to the increasing insurgency but kept with the pace of their operations
in different divisions of the country.

 Rule of law:

Rule of law is very important for the progress of many sectors in a country. For example,
without the proper judiciary system, fulfillment of human rights responsibilities by the state is
invalid. In Afghanistan, this is true with respect to the women rights building the capacity of
rule of law institutions which are important to deal with gender discrimination in a permanent
basis.

 Human Rights:

The state needs to support the justice, provide the accessibility to social services and the
intensification of authorizing habitual messages at the same time making sure liability by
constantly monitoring the position of women by both using quantitative and qualitative methods
(Johnson, 2016).

 Legitimacy:

The present condition of Afghanistan is constantly battling to gain the legitimacy in the country.
By solidifying democratic and responsible state of Afghanistan at ever y division, the reliability
and accomplishment of transition can be ensured. The major purpose of the current foreign
assistance for ANSF is the stabilization of liability of security forces, by overcoming the
corruption and thus, improving the legitimacy (Johnson, 2016).

2. Key findings on Pakistan

Pakistan is going through of different problems of terrorism, fanaticism, democracy and
development. Being a nuclear state, the governance of the country and the relationship with
neighboring countries, has its concerns not only the region but also the overall world. (Setas,
2013).

 Political situation

The political situation of Pakistan has been dominated by extensive corruption and nepotism for
many years. There is no inclination to properly address the instable social and educational
operations and a problem in the requirement and supply of energy with major concerns for the

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sector, households and the economy. Pakistan is going through a similar election where the
power is transferred from one government to the other. The PML-N took control over the county
and promised everyone to bring electricity to everyone, progress the economy, give education
and remove the extremism forever.

 The Army:

The army of the country is a major actor, which dominates the political and economic affairs of
the country, and the armed forces have implemented the rule of military for many years. The
armed force of the country makes around the one fourth of the economy and the army of the
country has a major role in the security and foreign policy of the country.

 Security:

The state of security in Pakistan remains very unpredictable, especially those territories joining
Afghanistan. The eradication of the international combat militaries from Afghanistan and the
progress in the Pakistan relationship with the USA are important factors. The current operation
in FATA and the consequences are the important contributors in the unpredictable security
condition. Extremist forces residing in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, sectional disputes
alongside Shia community and Baloch extremism, target killing cases all over the country and
existence of Jihad forces in Punjab are very volatile and they altogether intensify the instability
of security condition of Pakistan (Bakrania, 2017).

3. Implications
The existence of Afghanistan in a geo-strategic location attracted the foreign countries and they
intervened and influenced during several periods. In addition, the economic dependence of the
country also made it easier for foreign countries to intervene in different matters of Afghanistan.
This section aims to discuss the implication of the bilateral relationship of Afghanistan and
Pakistan on important foreign players. For establishing a peaceful and friendly relationship
between the two countries, it is crucial for the important players to get involved to show their
honest interest. However, the foreign players are not successful in doing so which resulted in
volatility and disorder in the whole region. The implications on important foreign players in t he
section are China, Russia, India, Iran and Central Asian States.

China showed its diplomacy by showing the agreement to form a crisis management structure
between Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to keep communication modes open at the crucial
time as well as terrorist attacks and allow overcoming the critical situation by communication
and therefore, overcome conflict situation. In addition, China proposed to encounter different
groups not operating well on Afghanistan to give a new life to stall Afghan reconciliation
procedure.

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The diplomacy of China began effectively and proven as very productive. Nevertheless, the
efforts of Wang, the Chinese foreign minister, will help in eliminating the two -sided tension
between Pak and Afghan seems very uncertain (Ramachandran, 2018). If China will be a true
negotiator or a biased mediator among Afghanistan and Pakistan, it will help in making the
peace in both countries as well as stability in Afghanistan. As the Taliban’s activities continued
to be focused within Afghanistan, its facility of refugee, camps and logistic assistance to
international extremist institutions such as Al-Qaeda, Uzbek and Chechen activists gave a
security risk to Russia as well as Central Asia. Also when the 1st Chechen War, Afghanistan
under Taliban rule turned out as the only one acknowledging the Chehnya’s freedom from
Russia. Terrorist and extremist groups, which found refuge in Afghanistan in the period of
Taliban rule, became a threat for Moscow, the capital of Russia, due to the plans to takeover
states in Central Asia: Russia’s center of influence (Trenin et al., 2014).

allowed the territory to utilize for the transportation center order to pass equipment for NATO
and US troops surrounded in Afghanistan. Therefore, this demonstrates that security
apprehensions of Russia regarding Afghanistan undermine the intimidating relations with the
US. When the US forces withdrew from Afghanistan, it became a huge dilemma for Russia.
Russia wanted the US forces to eradicate the borders surrounded by troops and leave
Afghanistan; it also wanted Afghanistan to be stabilized.

For many years, Afghanistan has been surrounded by the foreign interferences and war which is
hindering the peace, stability, security and economic growth of Afghanista n. After the collapse
of Taliban regime in Afghanistan, India stepped to take its part in reconstruction of Afghanistan.
This made the relationship between both the countries i.e. Afghanistan and India very good. The
close relation between the two countries are due to the Afghanistan’s problematic relation with
Pakistan as the Pakistan provided support to the Taliban groups.

India does not favor anything that benefits Pakistan and similar is the case for Pakistan. Pakistan
has been constantly accusing India as they are in support of division in the province of
Baluchistan and also training insurgents for encouraging terrorism in different parts of Pakistan.

India is all set to have an important part as soft power in Afghanistan and all set to face many
hurdles after the retreat of international troops. Despite there are many years have passed since
the US militants invaded Afghanistan, the existence of Taliban is still not over in the world. In
2015, the Taliban forces sieged the Northern city of Afghanistan although very briefly. The
speeches of President Karzai were centered to tackle the Taliban forces. Despite the leaders of
Taliban groups were killed, there was still no relief in the group and it remained to challenge the
leadership of Ghani. However, Iran’s opening becomes the chance to ensure stability in

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Afghanistan. The economic cooperation held between Iran and Afghanistan was centered to
provide economic support to Afghanistan.

The change in politics and economic condition of Iran has major consequences on the
relationship of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This will influence that two countries will make the
formulate the policies according to each other and also Iran. When the Chabahar deal was
announced as a long-term counter to challenge Gwadar port, the ambassador of Iran denied the
reports. In the broader perspective, the aim of Iran to stabilize the Pakistan and Afghanistan
relationship is also centered towards stabilization of Central Asia region, where the emerging
economies have represented as the place for the impact of extreme forces, again drawing roots
from the tension of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Iran has taken an important charge in bringing
revolution in the region (Joshi, 2016).

VII. CONCLUSIONS
The research aimed to address the important questions such as the relationship of Pakistan and
Afghanistan after the incident of 9/11, the implications of different countries and the direction of
the relationship in the future. After reviewing the secondary data, it can be said that instability in
the relationship of Afghanistan and Pakistan is not anyone's major interest. The actions from
Pakistan jeopardized the relationship with Afghanistan and it can be concluded that there is a
long way to maintain healthy and stable relationship with each other. Therefore, the researcher
rejects the alternative hypothesis and accepts the null hypothesis. One can say that Afghanistan
and Pakistan will not maintain a stable and healthy relationship in near future. Although both
countries share almost the same culture, ethnicity, linguistic and religion, the relationship cannot
be defined as friendly between both of them.

The major concern for Pakistan is the security. For this reason, Pakistan always attempted to
interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan to safeguard the national interest and to be safe
itself from any type of risk. In addition, the interference in the matters of Afghanistan is also due
to the threat of pro-Indian rule in Afghanistan. In order to have peace in Afghanistan, it is very
important to fill the trust gap with Pakistan as well as the US. The cooperation between these
three countries is very important for the stabilization of Afghanistan. In order to have peace in
Afghanistan, it is very important to fill the trust gap with Pakistan as well as the US. The
cooperation between these three countries is very important for the stabilization of Afghanistan.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3419449

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3419449