Seeking wiggle-room

Sartaj Aziz has announced that he plans to attend the Heart of Asia conference in India to discuss Afghanistan

‘Wiggle-room’ is diplo-speak for the tiny spaces that can be created or found within which intractable problems may be discussed. The upcoming Heart of Asia conference in early December is a venue where such creations may exist. The Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has announced that he plans to attend the Heart of Asia conference that is being held in India to discuss Afghanistan. He has hinted at wiggle-prospects by saying that his visit could be used to defuse the current high levels of tension that exist between India and Pakistan.

Bilateral relations have spiraled downwards since the killing of a Kashmiri activist in July. Seven Pakistani soldiers died as a result of Indian cross-border firing in the last week. There have been a number of civilian deaths of those living close to the Line of Control. Allegations of spying have been made by both sides and there have been diplomatic expulsions — taken together a basket of difficulties that overlay a relationship that was at best fractious even before July. There is no hint of formal detente and the principal agenda will be focused on Afghanistan.

That said the fates and prospects of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are all interlinked and it would be well within the realms of possibility that current tensions could be the subject of off-table exchanges in the wiggle-space the conference affords. Were that to be the case we would welcome such a development especially if it could be parlayed into something more concrete. What form that concrete may take is unknown and unknowable given the length and depth of the tensions historically; and there is no ‘square one’ to return to as a starting point. Difficult as it may be a new start-line has to be agreed that would lower the bilateral temperature as well as feed positively into the trilateral relationships between the three countries. For that to happen the Indian PM is going to have to dial back on some of his more inflammatory rhetoric. The judicious use of wiggle room could be to the benefit of all of us.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2016.

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