Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chauhdhary shakes hands with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar at the Foreign Office in Islamabad on March 3, 2015. PHOTO: PID
A former foreign minister of the country observed on March 3 that the meeting between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan was nothing more than “talks about talks” — but perhaps that is as much as may be expected. That nothing substantial emerged from the meeting, and that the broadcast press conference given by Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry was anodyne in the extreme — should not surprise us. International diplomacy is a game of mostly tiny increments rather than seismic shifts, and if there is a seismic shift it usually means trouble. Given the complexity of the relationship between Pakistan and India anything other than tiny steps is likely to lead into a minefield.
Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was in Pakistan as a part of the round he is making of the Saarc nations. It is of note that Pakistan is to chair the next Saarc summit in 2016 and a way-paving visit for this event was necessary. At the same time, it was also opportune in terms of repairing relations between the neighbours. India and Pakistan agreed to maintain “peace and tranquillity” along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary and there does seem to have been at least a flagging of issues on both sides without addressing any of them in such a way as might be construed as moving towards a resolution.
The press statement that was released by Mr Chaudhry was as anodyne as the press conference but it at least got the bullet-points out in the public domain, indicating that issues that are rarely spoken of got an airing. In broad terms we welcome this latest diplomatic move but it cannot be a stand-alone event. It needs to be displayed that this visit by the Indian foreign secretary was really a precursor to a linear process of peace-building and reconciliation. The problem of relations between India and Pakistan is long acknowledged as one of the reasons why Saarc as an organisation has failed to meet expectations. Let us use the time between now and the next Saarc moot to move beyond talks about talks and into something more substantial. But for now — this is better than nothing.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 5th, 2015.
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