SAARC Summit: Indian PM likely to visit Pakistan next year, says Aziz

PM’s adviser says govt developing consensus on relations with India

ISLAMABAD: The prime minister’s top aide on foreign policy has said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Pakistan next year to attend a summit of a regional grouping.

“We are hopeful that the Indian prime minister will come [to Pakistan] for the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in 2016,” Sartaj Aziz, the prime minister’s adviser on foreign affairs and national security, told reporters on Sunday after a conference of the Muslim Think Tanks Forum of Islamic Countries.

India’s Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry in Islamabad on March 5 in a move described by the Foreign Office as ‘icebreaker’. However, the two top diplomats failed to spring up any surprises on the composite dialogue process which has been on hold since the 2008 Mumbai terror siege.

The prime minister’s adviser said the government was hopeful that there would be some progress in dialogue with India. “It is premature to say how this process will go forward,” he said, adding that Pakistan’s foreign secretary would visit India whenever invited by New Delhi.

Aziz believes lack of trust between the two hostile neighbours is a major issue. “There will be progress on other issues if trust is restored,” he added. “This is a long journey and there will be progress if the [dialogue] process is put back on track.”

He also sought to dispel the impression that India’s successive prime ministers had not visited Pakistan despite invitations from Islamabad. Aziz recalled that former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited Pakistan in 1999 and signed the Lahore Declaration. “But the situation changed due to the Kargil episode and subsequent martial law,” he said referring to the bloodless coup of then army chief Pervez Musharraf.

“Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh had told me that he would visit Pakistan in case of some substantial development and his visit was expected in 2006-2007 but it did not happen and then the Mumbai attacks spoiled the relations,” Aziz added. “Now we hope he [Narendra Modi] will come to Pakistan.”

On relations with western neighbour, Aziz said the civil and military leaderships were on same page on all important issues, including relations with Afghanistan. “There is complete similarity and consistency in the [approaches of] civil and military leaders on all issues. They are on the same page on Afghanistan,” he added.

He confirmed that Islamabad and Kabul were in contact on the possible handover of TTP chief Mullah Fazullah. “The media would know if there is any progress,” he said.

The prime minister’s aide said the government was also evolving consensus on India. “There is consensus on China. The real issue is there should be no difference of perceptions,” he said. “They [army] are part of the government and the parliament is supreme.”

Asked about the Chinese president’s expected trip, Aziz said President Xi Jinping would visit Islamabad very soon – but not before March 23.

He said Pakistan has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin who is expected to visit Islamabad in coming months. “Pakistan and Russia will hold political level consultations in April,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2015.