Resumption of talks

That the first official talks between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India after the Mumbai attacks have now taken place may, to some, be a good thing in itself. Perhaps, so might be the fact that Shah Mahmood Qureshi will travel to India later this year to continue the dialogue with S M Krishna. It is also expected that the interior secretaries of both countries will meet soon as well as the trade and culture secretaries. The latter may mean some understanding on resumption of trade and culture links could be in the offing and if that indeed happens then it must be welcomed. The chequered, bilateral relationship between the neighbours is desperately in need of precisely these kind of confidence building measures: ie increased trade and people-to-people contacts. The reports on the talks, which were ostensibly extended for another session, suggested a particularly positive atmosphere with one Indian television channel also claiming that Pakistan had agreed to take action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders for their involvement in the Mumbai attacks and following detained would-be terrorist David Headley’s statement to Indian interrogators that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was directly involved in the planning of the attacks.

Whatever the impetus, it would be good if Islamabad were to indeed promise some kind of decisive action on this so that the one impediment in the ties between the two countries could be removed. Well over a billion people on both sides of the border could immensely benefit if the their respective governments and establishments were to demonstrate the courage and will to resolve their differences (for India the bone of contention would be terrorism and for Pakistan water) and let each other live in peace and without seeing the other as the enemy. Of course, to expect that to happen from a few hours of meetings between ministers may be expecting perhaps too much – however, at least a start seems to have been made and this should not be squandered, or else hawks in both India and Pakistan will feel further emboldened.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2010.