The year was 1971, a part of a nation not many today knew existed was about to fall and become a 3rd nation following the India/Pakistan split in 1947. What we now call Bangladesh was known as 'East-Pakistan' and was simply the eastern part of the country under Islamabad's rule. As one can imagine, this change like many geo-political changes did not happen peacefully and with full condoning support from all parties involved. I remember when I was little and asked a close family friend who was working at the United Nations the simple child-minded question 'why can't all countries just get along and be friends'. He tried his best to explain it in a suitable answer for all ages which worked out quite well actually, he said "Go spend the day with your friends and try to agree on something to do together, like eat at a certain place or watch a certain movie. You'll quickly notice how annoying and difficult it can be to agree with people you know and like, on issues that are meant to be pleasant and for just for leisure. Now imagine people who mistrust each other and are all representing millions of people back home, holding meetings together trying to agree on serious and often region/world altering issues which do not involve the mere price of a meal or movie ticket, but billions". Bottom line is that it takes time, dedication and a certain level of trust to make these type of multi-lateral agreements, which can be broken by a simple fool without any effort. Just ask the nations in the P5+1 Iran agreement if they would redo +10 years of negotiating if knowing they would succeed only to have it abandoned just 2 years after the agreement was finalized. The child version of me would ask "so what, that's just one country, the rest can ignore them, look for alternatives and carry on themselves".  I've learned a great deal about the scummy world of politics and global economics the past decades and can now answer him myself.

When it came to East-Pakistan, the India-China rivalry reared it's head again. This was in a very unique time mind you, in 1971 neighboring Iran was ruled by the pro-English dictator Reza, Sri Lanka still had English military presence, Pakistan which gained independence just 25 years earlier was still in a bitter rivalry with India regarding numerous issues and Saudi Arabia at the time was naturally more pro-Pakistan than India. Literally no one on earth was siding with the nation that rid themselves from colonial oppression without firing a single bullet at them, and were all siding with the seemingly 'yes we'll use our newly established country for your benefit' Pakistan. No one except Moscow that is, which at the time of course meant the largest union and military on planet earth. This left Moscow playing a diplomatic role in efforts to ease tensions between Beijing and New Delhi, since they were friendly with both of them, while Washington saw opportunity to divide this triangle. Considering Washington's tactful and diplomatic language towards India, it's PM Indira Gandhi and basically all Indian women, it's safe to say it was Beijing who they were trying to woo. But China had it's own rivalry and even war with the United States not so long ago regarding Korea. They knew fully well what games the United States was trying to play and that they were proven to be unreliable. Meaning the promises they made were not only meaningless but would mean they were de facto also siding with the US against Russia. Beijing ignored the offers Washington kept throwing at them, given the fact the pro-Pakistani side ended up being the losing side, this proved to be a very, very wise move. Long story short: Bangladesh gained it's independence. Pakistan was left without their eastern region and with their bitter friends Saudi Arabia, the US and England and a new alliance was born, an alliance where 2 nations would send "freedom fighters" to Pakistan requesting they'd be funneled into Afghanistan, only to threaten to bomb that same Pakistan "back to the stone age" if they didn't join their war to drop freedom bombs on those same freedom fighters in that very same Afghanistan 2 decades later.

But Pakistan from back then is not the Pakistan you see before you today and neither is India, this couldn't be more obvious when that same Saudi Arabia who was at the time allied to their 'fellow Muslim brethren', is now cozying up to India. Islamabad even took the unique step in indirectly admitting it was a mistake to side with Saudi America regarding their freedom fighter tactics in Afghanistan when they warned Turkey, who was/is in the process of supporting several Sharia law implementing Islamist groups in Syria, to "not repeat our mistakes". But who will warn India now? Will New Delhi see they are biting the same old rotten bait once dangled in front of Beijing? Or is it too late and has India already been reeled in with the Taiwan bait? To answer it frankly; At the moment no one knows, even those involved at the highest level. This is actually an ongoing process which is visibly being played out in other criteria, involving many of the same countries. We'll get our answer when too many of these type of reports come out and India is being forced into turning away from non-US allies in exchange for alternatives Washington approves of. As things stand now, it doesn't seem India took any roads from which it can not go back from and it would take a AUKUS type betrayal on the planned purchase and sanctions regarding the S400 to push them down that road, something that doesn't seem very likely for a number of reasons, so the India-US alliance may falter completely before it even starts. Either that or Washington will have to take a seat and accept that other nations will have an own foreign policy, even if they were planning to use them as part of theirs.