Marinkovic: The India–Pakistan conflict is extremely serious, but Kashmir cannot be compared to the situation in Kosovo

Former Serbian ambassador to Indonesia, Slobodan Marinkovic, told Kosovo Online that he does not expect an escalation of the conflict between India and Pakistan, and that the fight over Kashmir cannot be compared to the situation surrounding Kosovo.

Marinkovic stated that the historical circumstances are entirely different and that the situation in Kosovo should not be compared to Kashmir and the relations between India and Pakistan.

“It all stems from the colonial legacy, the British colonial legacy, and the partition of India into Pakistan, and later the emergence of Bangladesh and Kashmir. The conflict between two religions, Hindu and Muslim, resulted in fundamentally similar people, roughly like Serbs and Croats, but religiously completely separated. This is not the first conflict, but the fourth or fifth since both countries gained independence, and it is a very serious one. These are two large and serious countries in the Indo-Pacific, and I believe there will be efforts to deescalate, as has happened in past conflicts, while Kashmir remains an unresolved issue,” Marinkovic said.

However, he emphasized that he does not expect a war to break out between the two nuclear-armed countries, but rather a calming of the situation.

“The Indians say they haven’t built military facilities or barracks, just checkpoints, because the others killed tourists, although I don’t know who goes sightseeing in Kashmir. It is a multilayered debate, but it is the serious outbreak of a new crisis, one that was always expected in that part of the world,” he said.

If a war were to erupt between Pakistan and India, Marinkovic noted that it could be considered the beginning of World War III.

“Let’s not forget the India–China relations and the border conflict, the armed clash that happened five or six years ago, so there’s really no place in the world that is peaceful,” he concluded.