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Senior U.S. intelligence officials are warning thatthe India-Pakistan rivalry could pullChina into Afghanistan.First Posthas the highlights:

Pakistan is concerned about international isolation and sees its position through the prism of Indias rising status, including New Delhis expanded foreign outreach and deepening ties to the US, said National Intelligence Director Dan Coats

Pakistan will likely turn to China to offset its isolation, empowering a relationship that will help Beijing to project influence in the Indian Ocean, the Dawn quoted Coats as saying. []

Pakistan desires for Afghanistan some of the same things we want: a safe, secure, stable Afghanistan. One addition there is no heavy Indian influence in Afghanistan, said Defence Intelligence Director Lt General Vincent Stewart.

They view all of the challenges through the lens of an Indian threat to Pakistan. So they hold in reserve terrorist organisations so that if Afghanistan leans towards India, they will no longer be supportive of an idea of a stable and secure Afghanistan that could undermine Pakistans interests, the General said.

The basic geopolitical dynamics here are hardly new: Pakistan has long worried about Indias influence in Kabul, and not without reason. William Dalrymples2013 essayon the three countries deadly triangle lays outa fuller picture. China is the freshingredient, however, and its role is going to be closely watched by an Indian leadership already wary of its growing involvement in South Asia.

As the United States ponders sending an additional 5,000 troops to the countrya number that increasingly seems perfectly calibrated to do very little to tip the balance decisivelythe situation on the ground could be getting messier still.

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Is Pakistan Pulling China into Afghanistan? - The American Interest