Not true. The primary concern of China, Iran and Russia is the US military base in Central Asia. Jihadism is secondary concern. Otherwise why would Russia get together with Pakistan, the mother of all ills in Afghanistan.Russia's main concern in Afghanistan is that Islamic jihadism does not enter into its territory and sphere of influence through the soft underbelly of (Muslim) Central Asia.Stability in Afghanistan is essential.
Hitching our wagon is strong and wrong phrase. But correct policy by India. Since Russia is getting cosier with China (India is not the reason), Desh sees US as a better bet.Unfortunately we seem to be hitching our wagon to a fading superpower in the Indo- Pacific region, the US which has totally lost the plot in the ME, especially over Syria, where the Russians taught it a signal lesson in the application of military force to defeat ISIS anc humiliate UX diplomacy. We funnily see more Indian diplomatic activity with the US hoping that it will pull our chestnuts out of the fire vis a vis China and Pak despite the evidence before our eyes of US decline and appear to have forgotten or deliberately ignored Russia which stood by us for decades allowing us to dismember Pak into two.As the hostility between the US and China grows, Russo-Sino relations get warmer.
We are seeing the region and world through our lens onlee. Its the Russians who are trying to play zero sum games with us. Strategic convergence with US was gonna happen because Russia was getting closer to China anyway. These ties wont be limited in the Afghan theatre either. This is wishful thinking.This is an inescapable fact.We must also realise that if we want to woo the US to the detriment of our relationship with Russia, viewing the security of the rdgion thriugh Yanqui made spectacles,closer ties between it and Pak are inevitable.However, these ties as one can see are limited to the Afg.theatre.
Everyone shafts everyone else. It is Russia doing more of the betrayal to the Kurds in Syria. It was Russia that betrayed its communist allies in Afghanistan by withdrawing. Betrayed India in 1962 by calling how India and Chinese are brothers. So evil Amreeka and nice Russia is not actually true. Putin needs to decide whether India is valued enough a friend or not.In the ultimate analysis we should take a good hard look at history and see how the US let down its bum-chums time and time again.From Vietnam to the Phillippines to Iran to Iraq to Panama and now to its Sunni Arab allies in the ME .The Kurds ard getting yet another lesson in betrayal from the US.Above all Pak which relied so much on the US in '71 got shafted because Nixon and Kissinger could not risk a spat with Russia which warned them against any action against us! Our current diplomacy which is trying to be all things to all nations has its limitations.