India and Pakistan in Central Asia: Origins, Evolution and Prospects of the Relations

The article deals with the comparison of India’s and Pakistan’s foreign policy strategies in the Central Asian region. The aim of the paper is to determine the foundations of the political thinking of the countries’ elites that were underpinning the foreign policy formulation towards Central Asia in post-bipolar era. For this purpose, the authors analyzed the development of a foreign policy approach during the British Raj and later from the mid-20th century, when the elites of the newly independent countries were forced to coin their attitude towards the region. This discussion produced the narrative of the “New Great Game”. The authors claim that this discourse derives from the heritage of British thought, which implies the confrontational nature of political interaction between the great powers in Central Asia. To prove this origin, the authors invoked the theoretical complex approach including historical sociology of IR, elite theory, critical geopolitics and critical historiography. On the military-political domain, the confrontation was mostly evident in Afghanistan, a «gate» to the region. In the economic sphere, this confrontation manifested itself in the struggle for energy resources, which was also driven by political imperatives. As a result, New Delhi and Islamabad are more inclined to demonstrate their interest in developing ties than taking concrete steps towards Central Asia. Today India’s relations with the Central Asia states mainly focus on political interaction and the development of humanitarian cooperation. Pakistan still concentrates on security, transport and logistics as well as energy sector, although no tremendous success is at sight.