The sixty minute meet between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan at Ufa Conference Hall in Russia, held on the sidelines of the SCO summit has come off after a meeting between the two Prime Ministers held in May last on the occasion of Modi’s swearing in ceremony and the invitation to SAARC members.
Formal talks between the two countries remained stalled for more than a year when on India’s choosing, Foreign Secretaries meet was stalled; the reason being Pakistani mission in New Delhi inviting Kashmiri separatist leaders to talks that preceded the proposed Foreign Secretary level talks.
Good deal of Track II work was going on during the intervening time. Even undeclared emissaries were also legging between the two capitals and seeking a break through in the impasse. Foreign office spokesman in Islamabad said that the international community was also interested in improvement of relations between Pakistan and India because it would benefit not only the people of the two countries but also the whole region. It has to be noted that the US has been mounting pressure on both sides to re-start talks.
Generally speaking, the US has been prompting both sides to resolve their differences through dialogue and that it was ready to facilitate the talks if both sides desired. The US has compulsions in Afghanistan. Pakistan has given an impression to the US that Pakistan’s cooperation in coping with the war in Afghanistan is conditional to the resolution of Kashmir issue. The US did try to bring some pressures on India in regard to resolving the dispute with Pakistan but then the rise of Al Qaeda, Taliban and the TTP with the last mentioned gaining good strength in a short time changed the strategies, and it dawned upon the US that even if Kashmir dispute was resolved, it would not be any dependable guarantee for elimination of radicalism and terrorism in the region.
But the more recent development is the upsurge in West Asia known as the Islamic Caliphate of Iraq and Syria. (ISSI). The rapidity with which radical Islamists have brought swaths of Iraq-Syrian territory under its control and the type of barbarism unleashed in the name of radical Islam has sent shocks to the entire civilized world. The more alarming is the gusto with which radicalized youth from various Islamic and non-Islamic countries are flocking to join the Caliphate forces and the broad and deep linkages that are in the making between the long existing terrorist groups in Pakistan-Afghanistan region, all have converged on emergence of a sense of instability and insecurity in Pakistan and in other regional Islamic states that are not formal votaries of radicalized Islam propagated by the propagators of the concept of Caliphate.
This is the reason why the two leaders focused their talks mostly on the subject of terrorism. In the joint press release of two Foreign Secretaries after the meeting of the two Prime Ministers both leaders condemned terrorism “in all its forms” and agreed to cooperate with each other to eliminate this menace from South Asia.
Significantly, the press release mentions Pakistan speaking about terrorism as a menace to South Asia, something which India had been harping upon for a long time. Two points are noteworthy in the press statement from our point of view. Firstly, Pakistan has recognized that terrorism is threatening the entire South Asia, by which inference is essentially the regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Myanmar and Eastern Turkistan. India and Pakistan are two major states in the region which are directly shadowed by terrorism. Obviously, as has been stated in the press release, both of them have a big responsibility of meeting the challenge of terrorism and of restoring peace and tranquility in the entire region.
The second important point to be noted about the press release is that there is no mention of Kashmir, either as the core issue and jugular vein or atut ang rhetoric. This indicates marked deviation from established culture of Indo-Pak talks.
No mention of Kashmir has caused dismay rather panic among the Kashmir separatists. Hardliners like Ali Shah Geelani have called it the usual time wasting practice. He has also characterized it as talks under US pressure. Other separatists leaders including the Mirwaiz faction of Hurriyat have made almost a similar statement but couched in soft phraseology. They, too, are not happy with it in general.
The point is that realization has dawned upon Pakistan that terrorism and fundamentalism within the country, now trying for a link up with ISSI is a potential threat to the Pakistan polity. Even the Pakistan military, too, has this realization. The large scale killing of TTP in Pakistan’s war in Waziristan without any final outcome is also a factor that influences Pakistan’s new thinking. There is growing resentment and disaffection within Pakistan civil society of large scale killing of innocent people in Waziristan and some human rights organizations have raised their voice.
In the light of this background, and the commitment of Modi Government to mete out just treatment to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, it is a welcome step that the two Prime Ministers have agreed to set the ball rolling. The continued firing on the LoC and IB is an irritant and there is agreement between the two leaders to direct the field commanders to find a lasting solution and end firing and shelling. India should be satisfied with the assurance given by Pakistani side that legal action against the perpetrators of Mumbai carnage will be brought to its logical conclusion because it has also agreed to accept the voice samples which India will be producing.
In final analysis, this is a good start for continuing bilateral talks. Indian spokespersons remark that Pak Prime Minister has shown statesmanship means that India thinks this approach to the vexed question of bilateral relations might augur well for both countries.
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