Foreign secretaries swap proposals

The foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India swapped on Thursday proposals for addressing the issues constraining bilateral ties, as the two countries prepared for a long haul to address mutual mistrust.

While Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna are set to meet in Islamabad on July 15, it was evident after the secretaries’ parleys that the return to peace talks, suspended in November 2008 in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, would not be happening soon.

But, more worrying was a warning from the Indians that the trust building process was not insulated from any future terrorist incident.

“We understand that this process will be protracted,” Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said at a press conference with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir.

Both Ms Rao and Mr Bashir said they were more focused on identifying the many ‘achievables and doables’ in the short- and medium-term before they returned to full-fledged peace talks.

The secretaries’ meeting, which both sides agreed was marked by ‘cordiality, sincerity and earnestness’, took place as a follow-up to an agreement between Prime Ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Manmohan Singh in Bhutan in April for re-engaging to normalise the ties.

The proposals for confidence building shared at Thursday’s talks will be considered by both governments and later firmed up through diplomatic channels, before the foreign ministers’ meeting where a host of measures to be jointly undertaken by Pakistan and India are expected to be announced.

At the press conference, both secretaries avoided discussing the specific proposals presented by them and instead emphasised on creating conducive atmosphere for re-engagement and putting the difficult bilateral relationship on the right track.

However, Secretary Rao’s assertion that “people are lifeblood of any relationship”, was a clear indication that the two countries were eyeing measures for improving people-to-people contacts and humanitarian issues to form the core of any trust-building formula.

Diplomatic sources said both sides candidly discussed the most contentious issues of terrorism and Kashmir and Mr Bashir noted after the media briefing: “I think it is not a question of irritation (on each other’s core concerns). We realise that there are complex issues on both sides that we have to address.”

TERRORISM: While India reiterated its demand for expeditious prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks and dismantling of the so-called India-focused terror network allegedly based here, the Pakistani side pointed out its concerns about Indian sponsorship of terrorism and espionage in Balochistan and Fata.

The accusations and counter-accusations, which have become hallmark of any Indo-Pakistan dialogue, more importantly did not stop the two sides from expressing their resolve to jointly deal with the menace of terrorism.

“We should work together to resolve outstanding issues and deal with dangers, threats and evils of terrorism,” the Indian foreign secretary said.

Mr Bashir supported the Indian call for anti-terror cooperation, saying such collaboration would be beneficial for both countries which stood to gain from not allowing space to terrorists to act against each other.

The details of the proposed anti-terror cooperation are expected to be discussed at a meeting of the home ministers of both countries on the sidelines of Saarc interior ministers’ meeting due to be held here on Friday.

Mr Bashir said a broad agreement had been reached during his meeting with Ms Rao to move from rhetoric to effectively dealing with the menace.

This understanding was visibly at work at post-meeting background discussions with Indian officials, who looked more accommodative towards Pakistan’s efforts against terrorism. One diplomat said that while India acknowledged that Pakistan existed in a ‘terror-infested environment’, it expected Pakistan to have a ‘non-segmented’ approach in dealing with extremists and terrorists of all shades.

The Indian officials also appeared to have reconciled with Pakistan’s difficulties in confining Jamaatud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed because of superior courts’ directives, but demanded that the government should at least stop virulent anti-India propaganda by him.

Pakistan, the sources said, was open to India’s new proposal vis-a-vis Hafiz Saeed and was also wary of the anti-peace lobby in both countries trying to scuttle the re-engagement process.

The Indians informed the Pakistani side that the re-engagement was not insulated from any future terrorist attack that could badly impact the process by restricting the already little negotiation space Dehli had.

At the secretaries’ meeting, the Indians minced no words in cautioning that attacks on Indian assets in Afghanistan would affect the ties, the sources said.

KASHMIR: Proposals discussed for intensifying Kashmir-related confidence-building measures included increasing cross LoC communication, trade and transport.

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