Editoral-Pakistan-India ties

Not much was expected in terms of public announcements from the meeting of the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India yesterday in Islamabad and not much was offered afterwards for public consumption other than blandishments. With their bosses, the foreign ministers, set to meet on July 15, such meetings are invariably about setting the stage for higher-level interactions. From the perspective of nudging forward Pakistan-India relations, the meeting to be held between Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Home Minister P. Chidambaram may hold greater promise. Undeniably, terrorism is a key issue between the two countries at present. Yet, bizarrely, there is no effective mechanism for sharing intelligence on potential terrorist activities between the two countries.

The Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism set up in 2006 had become a posturing club, involving members of the bureaucracy who were content to exchange ‘wanted lists’ periodically. A more meaningful mechanism would involve the exchange of real-time intelligence between the two countries, and would almost surely require the active participation of the intelligence agencies on both sides. Messrs Malik and Chidambaram could use their meeting towards at least initiating such a process, one that would in concrete ways address some of India’s concerns on the terrorism front.

The fact of the matter is that big breakthroughs are not likely any time soon. Perhaps because of external, read US, pressure or perhaps because India is afraid the shifting tide in Afghanistan may jeopardise its investments there, India agreed to talk to Pakistan. But it’s striking that even now, some months after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his surprise announcement, there is no decisive shift away from the Indian position post-Mumbai. What seems to have changed is more the tone and tenor rather than the substance of the conversations. Also not very encouraging is the lack of creative thinking on the Pakistani side.

As long as India clung to its ‘no composite dialogue’ line, Pakistan seemed to know what to say: restart the composite dialogue. But given some kind of ambiguity in the Indian position, Pakistan has not been able to put any new ideas on the table. To be sure, it’s in Pakistan’s interests to talk, and talk soon, about the ‘core’ issues, Kashmir, water, etc. Yet, diplomatic breakthroughs are not had by sitting back and sticking to traditional demands. In Prime Minister Singh, Pakistan has a potential peace partner who appears willing to at least go beyond the bare minimum in the quest for peace. Creative thinking here could give the latest ‘process’ the necessary impetus.

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