Huddle to tightrope: India weighs Pak
NEW DELHI: Beyond the brief huddle in Paris between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif, New Delhi is weighing options for re-engagement with the neighbour, a tightrope walk by many means.
First, the government has to take a call on the level of participation at the Heart of Asia Conference, a meet on Afghanistan, in Islamabad, for which external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had been invited.
Sources said a decision will be taken in a day or two on whether Swaraj would travel to Islamabad on December 8 and 9 to attend the regional conference on Afghanistan. Centre is also discussing whether minister of state VK Singh or foreign secretary S Jaishankar could be sent in case Swaraj is not going.
Also pending is a decision on whether to de-link sporting ties from political situation and allow India-Pakistan cricket series in the neutral venue of Sri Lanka.
New Delhi is keen on the reengagement process follows the agreement between Modi and Sharif in Ufa in July, which had called for the two national security advisers to meet to discuss the issue of terrorism. This engagement can take place either in Islamabad or any other country, sources said. But Pakistan is not amenable to the NSA level talks alone, which it believes gives advantage to India by focusing the ‘issue of terrorism alone.’ So, Pakistan would like to have meeting between the two foreign offices, ideally between the two foreign secretaries, sources familiar with the development told HT.
The two foreign secretaries used to discuss the issue of peace and security, which covered Jammu & Kashmir under the now defunct composite dialogue process. India had called off the composite dialogue process after the Mumbai terror strike of 2008.
Though the two sides had put the dialogue process back, the neighbours haven’t been able to address their trust deficit.