THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-December 6, 2016- Topic 1
There are
good reasons why the ‘Heart of Asia’ conference, part of a 14-nation process begun in
2011 to facilitate the development and security of Afghanistan, is so named.
The obvious one is geographical, as Afghanistan lies at the junction of
Central, South and East Asia, and also of the ancient trading routes from China
and India to Europe. Today it is also a focal point for the region’s biggest
challenge of terrorism; some of the far-reaching battles against al-Qaeda,
Islamic State, etc. will be decided on the battlegrounds of Afghanistan. For India,
putting terror centre stage at the Heart of Asia declaration in Amritsar was
thus timely and necessary. In tandem, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime
Minister Narendra Modi focussed their concerns on cross-border terrorism
emanating from Pakistan, something even Pakistan’s traditional allies at the
conference, including China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey, found difficult
to counter. The case Mr. Ghani made was clear: progress and development in
Afghanistan are meaningless and unsustainable without peace, and peace is
contingent on Pakistan ending support to terror groups such the Haqqani network
and Lashkar-e-Taiba. He dared Pakistan to use its proposed development grant to
Afghanistan to fight terror on its own soil.
However, if
every window for engagement with Pakistan is closed for India and Afghanistan,
the two countries must closely consider what their next step will be. A lack of
engagement may, in the short term, yield some pressure on Pakistan’s leadership
to act, as it did briefly after the Pathankot
attack. But in the long run it may deplete the two countries of their
limited leverage as Pakistan’s neighbours. It may, for all the affirmations of
mutual ties, also succeed in driving more obstacles to trade between India and
Afghanistan. In the past year, the cornering of Pakistan by its South Asian
neighbours has only yielded deeper ties for Islamabad with Beijing and Moscow,
pushed Kabul closer to Central Asia, and moved New Delhi towards multilateral
groupings to the east and south. As a result, the measures India and
Afghanistan have envisaged in order to avoid Pakistan, such as land trade from
the Chabahar port and a dedicated air corridor between Delhi and Kabul, may
prove to be insufficient by the time they are put in place, even as Afghanistan
is connected more closely via a rail line from China’s Yiwu and Tehran. The
Heart of Asia process thus remains critical to forging cooperation to realise
Afghanistan’s potential to be a vibrant Asian “hub”.
Vocabulary
Facilitate: make an action or process easy
or easier.
Example: Schools were located on the same campus to facilitate the sharing of
resources
Synonyms: make easy/easier, ease, make possible, make
smooth/smoother
Obvious: easily perceived or
understood; clear, self-evident, or apparent.
Example: Unemployment has been the most obvious cost of the recession
Synonyms: clear, crystal clear, plain, plain to see, evident, apparent, manifest
Focal point: the point at which rays or
waves meet after reflection or refraction, or the point from which diverging
rays or waves appear to proceed.
Example: The lens that picks up the light from the focal point is called the
eyepiece lens.
Tandem: a bicycle with seats and
pedals for two riders, one behind the other.
Example: However, I did make a road bike, mountain bike and a tandem for this
particular customer which did not shimmy.
Emanating: of something abstract but perceptible issue or spread out from a source.
Example: Warmth emanated from the fireplace
Synonyms: originate, stem, derive, proceed, spring, issue, emerge, flow, come
Unsustainable: not able to be maintained at
the current rate or level.
Example: Macroeconomic instability led to an unsustainable boom
Contingent: subject to chance.
Example: The contingent nature of the job
Synonyms: chance, accidental, fortuitous, possible, unforeseeable, unpredictable
Affirmation: the action or process of
affirming something or being affirmed.
Example: He nodded in affirmation
Synonyms: declaration, statement, assertion, proclamation, pronouncement
Envisaged: contemplate or conceive of as
a possibility or a desirable future event.
Example: The Rome Treaty envisaged free movement across frontiers
Synonyms: imagine, contemplate, visualize, envision, picture, conceive
of
