Close Menu
Influential MagazineInfluential Magazine
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • More
    • Web Stories
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Press Release

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest business and finance news for entrepreneurs all around the world.

What's Hot
Video: Toy Company Still In Crisis Despite Reduced Tariffs on China

Video: Toy Company Still In Crisis Despite Reduced Tariffs on China

May 27, 2025
Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

May 24, 2025
Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

May 22, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Influential MagazineInfluential Magazine
SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • More
    • Web Stories
    • Editor’s Picks
    • Press Release
Influential MagazineInfluential Magazine
Home » How India Is Trying to Squeeze Pakistan Far From the Battlefield

How India Is Trying to Squeeze Pakistan Far From the Battlefield

May 8, 20255 Mins Read Business
How India Is Trying to Squeeze Pakistan Far From the Battlefield
Share
Facebook Twitter Reddit Telegram Pinterest Email

Even as India was gearing up to use its military to strike at Pakistan this week, calling it revenge for a terrorist strike in Kashmir last month, the government was pursuing other forms of power projection as well: bloodless and more refined, and mostly aimed at Pakistan’s economic vulnerability.

On Friday, May 9, the executive board of the International Monetary Fund is scheduled to meet three blocks from the White House. Indian officials have suggested that they will make a new case there: that the Fund should refuse the extension of a $7 billion loan to Pakistan described as crucial to getting the country on more solid footing financially and to fund desperately needed services for its people. And though Indian officials will not confirm it, other potential sources of Pakistani aid may also be in India’s sights, according to domestic media reports.

In two weeks before its strikes against Pakistan on Wednesday, India was already testing new ways to aggrieve its old enemy.

On April 23, India pulled out of a river-sharing treaty that has safeguarded Pakistan’s vulnerable water supply since 1960. Pakistan called it an act of war.

India turned to its softer power, as well. As tensions rose after the terrorist attack in Kashmir, India tinkered with its internet controls to cut off Pakistani musicians and cricketers from their audiences on Indian social media, much as it blocked Indians from using Chinese-owned TikTok after a clash with China in 2020.

India also announced that it would sever all trade between the two countries. In practice, there wasn’t much to begin with. India exports mainly sugar, medicines and some other chemicals to Pakistan. Some Indian exporters said they never got a legal notice from the government — so they are still fulfilling contracts.

But Pakistan was only shipping a paltry $2 million in goods to India before this flare-up. The economic asymmetry between these unhappy neighbors is more striking than ever.

The more financial forms of pressure happen mostly behind closed doors. Local news outlets reported that Indian officials have been saying they are working to persuade the Fund and similar institutions to punish Pakistan.

“It would be surprising if India did not take a stance” against loans to Pakistan, said Sudipto Mundle, who served as the Asian Development Bank’s chief economist in New Delhi.

“These institutions have the appearance of corporate banks, but they’re basically very political institutions,” said Mr. Mundle, now the chairman of India’s Center for Development Studies. Loans are supposed to be approved on the merits of a particular project, he said, but “at the end of the day, the things get decided by which side the various members of the board are aligned with.”

Mr. Mundle remembers how the Asian Development Bank bank canceled a loan to India that had already been approved in 1998, in response to India’s test of a nuclear bomb. The United States and most other countries that mattered were angry at India for starting a nuclear rivalry with Pakistan, as they saw it.

The same countries are more sympathetic to India these days, and not only as a victim of terrorism. Its economy has grown to 10 times the size of Pakistan’s, and its workers and consumers appeal to strategists who yearn for an alternative to China.

Earlier on the very night of India’s strikes against Pakistani targets, India and Britain announced a free-trade agreement that had been in the works for three years. India is working to seal deals with the United States and the European Union, too.

But there are also reasons for financial organizations based in Washington to hesitate to indulge India in its effort to cut Pakistan off. Those institutions, recognizing Pakistan’s economic vulnerability, may be reluctant to plunge the country into deeper instability after years of loans and programs aimed at improving its debt and currency stability.

India has contradicted a report that its finance ministry was lobbying the Asian Development Bank itself to reconsider lending to Pakistan. But it did not deny similar reports that it will try having Pakistan put back on a “gray list” maintained by a global anti-money-laundering and antiterrorism task force. The listing would threaten Pakistan’s ability to get financial assistance, and the country had spent years struggling to get off it before finally succeeding in 2022.

T.C.A. Raghavan, who served as India’s high commissioner to Pakistan from 2013 to 2015, said the “gray list” is powerful, but that India’s sharpest nonmilitary tools in this conflict are its relationships with other countries.

“There the equations have changed very, very dramatically.” In particular, India’s relationships with the Gulf monarchies, in Europe and with the United States, “those relationships have changed a lot in the last 10 or 15 years,” Mr. Raghavan said.

He was working on Pakistani affairs before 2008, when Pakistan-sponsored terrorists raided Mumbai and killed 166 people. After that incident, Mr. Raghavan said, “most countries understood very clearly” the nature of India’s problem.

Asian Development Bank Credit and Debt Foreign Aid International Relations Kashmir Pakistan Politics and Government Territorial Disputes
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Telegram Reddit Email
Previous ArticleToyota Says Tariffs Will Erase $1.3 Billion in Profits in Just 2 Months
Next Article A’ja Wilson Now Has a Nike Signature Shoe. Why Did It Take So Long?

Related Posts

Video: Toy Company Still In Crisis Despite Reduced Tariffs on China

Video: Toy Company Still In Crisis Despite Reduced Tariffs on China

May 27, 2025
Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

May 24, 2025
Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

May 22, 2025
Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

May 19, 2025
Video: How Staffing Shortages Have Plagued Newark Airport

Video: How Staffing Shortages Have Plagued Newark Airport

May 17, 2025
Consumers Show Signs of Strain Amid Trump’s Tariff Rollout

Consumers Show Signs of Strain Amid Trump’s Tariff Rollout

May 15, 2025
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Demo
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
Don't Miss
Video: Toy Company Still In Crisis Despite Reduced Tariffs on China

Video: Toy Company Still In Crisis Despite Reduced Tariffs on China

By News RoomMay 27, 2025

new video loaded: Toy Company Still In Crisis Despite Reduced Tariffs on ChinatranscriptBacktranscriptToy Company Still…

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

May 24, 2025
Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

May 22, 2025
Wedding Belles Love Expands with Size-Inclusive, Same-Day Bridalwear Boutique

Wedding Belles Love Expands with Size-Inclusive, Same-Day Bridalwear Boutique

May 22, 2025

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest business and finance news for entrepreneurs all around the world.

About Us
About Us

Influential Magazine is one of the top news portals about Business and Finance news for Entrepreneurs and leaders all around the world, follow us for more intersting articles and news.

Our Picks
Wedding Belles Love Expands with Size-Inclusive, Same-Day Bridalwear Boutique

Wedding Belles Love Expands with Size-Inclusive, Same-Day Bridalwear Boutique

May 22, 2025
Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

Markets Head Lower in Wake of Concerns About U.S. Debt

May 19, 2025
Video: How Staffing Shortages Have Plagued Newark Airport

Video: How Staffing Shortages Have Plagued Newark Airport

May 17, 2025
Trending Now
Consumers Show Signs of Strain Amid Trump’s Tariff Rollout

Consumers Show Signs of Strain Amid Trump’s Tariff Rollout

May 15, 2025
Inside Elon Musk’s X Feed: Trumpism, Falsehoods and Lots of Love for Elon Musk

Inside Elon Musk’s X Feed: Trumpism, Falsehoods and Lots of Love for Elon Musk

May 15, 2025
World Economic Forum Investigating Allegations Against Founder Klaus Schwab

World Economic Forum Investigating Allegations Against Founder Klaus Schwab

May 15, 2025
Influential Magazine
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram LinkedIn
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms & Conditions
© 2025 Influential Mag. All Rights Reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.