Fruits of diplomacy

The meeting between two DGMOs is a significant step in the right direction and has our strong support.

Relations between Pakistan and India are at a crucial juncture. The texture and quality of their relationship in the coming year is going to, in large part, determine the stability, or otherwise, of the region as a whole. There has been tension along the Line of Control (LoC) since January this year with firing by both sides and casualties on both sides as well. The proposal that our respective Directors General Military Operations (DGMOs) meet regularly as a means of providing a ‘safety valve’ that becomes operant as needed and opens a window in the doors of diplomacy has long been mooted. That proposal has finally been concretised after some soft backchannel dialogue in the last two months. It is said to be an open secret that the Americans are pressuring India and Pakistan to move towards a rapprochement as the 2014 troop withdrawal deadline approaches, and the current government of Pakistan has from the outset made it plain that it wishes to re-energise the stumbling — and until recently, stalled — peace process.



The two DGMOs are to meet on December 24. The meeting is in response to an invitation by Major General Amir Riaz to his Indian counterpart, Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia, and will take place in Pakistan at an undisclosed location. The stated aim is to strengthen the mechanisms which will ensure that the ceasefire holds on the LoC. The meeting has its genesis in the sidelines contact between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the UN General Assembly in September. There were difficulties of protocol, there being no precedent for face-to-face contact between DGMOs, but these appear to have been ironed out. The recent visit of Shahbaz Sharif to India was a part of the ‘ironing’ process and was generally well received on both sides of the border. The two DGMOs have also been in touch with each other since the end of October, which has led to a de-escalation of tension and an agreement to abide by the terms of the 2003 ceasefire. This is a significant step in the right direction and has our strong support.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2013.

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