'Don't set impossible tasks for diplomacy': Ex-NSA Shivshankar Menon says it's not India's job to stop IMF loans to Pakistan

Former Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has said the world doesn't want Pakistan to collapse into complete anarchy, so they will continue to work with it. He suggested that India should not expect other countries to align their foreign policy with New Delhi's concerns on Pakistan, including over terrorism and international financing. His remarks come amid criticism over recent developments that saw Pakistan receive IMF funding and favourable statements from the US Army General days after India's Operation Sindoor.

"Don't set impossible tasks to diplomacy," Menon said in an exclusive interview with India Today. "I don't think we should ask our diplomats to change the way other countries behave — they've always behaved on the basis of their interests and what's in it for them."

Menon, who also served as NSA from 2010 to 2014, was responding to questions on global reactions during India's airstrikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Islamabad's subsequent diplomatic backing from China and Turkey, and funding from the IMF. The IMF released $1.023 billion to Pakistan while Operation Sindoor was still underway. The US CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla last week called Pakistan a "phenomenal partner" in counterterrorism.

Asked whether global actors were ignoring Pakistan's support for terrorism, Menon said: "The world will do what suits their interest. They find Pakistan useful. In fact, in many ways over the last few years, Pakistan has tried to make herself useful to other people, whether it is in Centcom's fight against ISIS Khorasan or whether it is the Pakistanis now investing in cryptocurrency which is being pushed by the White House. They will use this to see what they can get out of it. So I don't think that has changed in any fundamental way."

"Our job is not to actually prevent IMF loans to Pakistan. The world doesn't want Pakistan to collapse into complete anarchy, so they will continue to work with Pakistan," the former diplomat said, adding that Pakistan has made herself useful to China and the US and that rivalry between Beijing and Washington actually has worked in Pakistan's favor in some ways. 

Responding to whether India had been able to convince the world that Pakistan sponsors terrorism, Menon said, "The world doesn't respond on the basis of whether they are convinced or not. The world responds on the basis of what's in their interest." 

"Today, unlike 10 years ago, the world does not see Pakistan as offering a terrorist threat to themselves. Ten years ago when the global war on terror was on, the US, Europe, Denmark, the UK — all of them saw terrorist threats emanating from Pakistan affecting them directly. So they will condemn terrorism. And what you do is your business. They won't get in your way either. But you cannot expect them to act beyond their interest," he said. "It's not a question of how convinced they are — in fact they are convinced. Nobody has gone against the narrative that this originated in Pakistan."

Menon also said India's global standing remains unchanged. "I'm not sure that we can measure India's place in the world on a minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, event-by-event basis. Basically, I think India's place in the world is where it was. I don't think that has changed fundamentally. The world's interest in India is also the same as it was before."

As far as Operation Sindoor is concerned, the former diplomat added, the world understands what we face in terms of terrorism. "We got support across the board after Pahalgam. But when it comes to a conflict between India and Pakistan, countries react on the basis of their interest."