Defense News quotes South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Claude Rakisits on the implications of continued tensions between Afghan and Pakistani troops along their mutual border:

However, Claude Rakisits, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, does not believe the situation will escalate, primarily because it is not in the interest of neither country to do so.

He highlights a number of factors on the Afghan side that would encourage Kabul to try and reduce tensions because “even though [Afghan] President Ghani recently went very public about his frustration with Pakistan’s failure to stop the recent Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, he also knows that he has little choice but to work with Pakistan,” he said.

Adding, “Having dumped the Indians in favor of China and Pakistan, his country’s future is now intimately linked to the success of China’s recently signed $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC] project, which if fully implemented will be good news for Afghanistan and its economic development.”

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