Plus Ça Change

Pre-WTCB, or World Trade Center Bombings, this was the South Asian superpower alignment: China was Pakistan's big buddy, selling weapons and providing logistical and technical support to a state that had fallen on the U.S. blacklist after years of friendship. The U.S., meanwhile, was seen to be shifting into India's camp, evidenced by Bill Clinton's visit in 2000. In the post-WTCB world, the U.S. has had to enlist Pakistan as an ally in the war on terror, while China and India, who fought a war in 1962, have found more common ground than either side thought possible just two years ago.

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Last week, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the first Indian head of state to journey to Beijing since 1993. He met with President Hu Jintao and was invited to the Yuquanshan Mountain military compound by former President Jiang Zemin, who called him an "old friend."

Fast friend—as in sudden—is more like it. Vajpayee, for the first time, appeared to acknowledge Tibet as part of China, using the Chinese official desigation of "Tibet Autonomous Region." In return, China tacitly acknowledged India's right to the formerly independent kingdom of Sikkim.

While India was cozying up to China, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf spent the week in the opposite hemisphere cementing ties with the U.S. During a trip to Camp David, Musharraf was rewarded by President George W. Bush for his support in the war on terror with a five-year, $3 billion aid package.

As for relations between India and Pakistan themselves? Diplomatic ties between the two nuclear powers are being restored, but major rifts remain. It may take more than a superpower realignment for these two to solve their problems.