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| Will Manmohan-Gilani meet break the ice ? | | |
The ensuing meeting between Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh,and his Pakistani counterpart,Yousuf Raza Gilani,on the sidelines of the NAM summit in Egypt on July 16 may provide yet another chance for the two sides to normalise bilateral ties.Since 2003 India and Pakistan have been trying to build bridges.Whenever the dialogue between the two sides shows signs of progress an event or two spoils the show.This is what happened when Mumbai was targeted by the militants,who had come from Pakistan.The result of the Mumbai mayhem was that Delhi choked the channels of dialogue with Islamabad.During the last six months Islamabad has been pleading for the resumption of talks and in this connection it has succeeded in persuading Washington to mount pressure on Delhi to reopen the channels of dialogue.The American President,Barack Obama,has repeatedly asked Delhi to resume talks with Islamabad for resolving bilateral problems including the Kashmir issue.India has not been averse to the resumption of talks but it wants Islamabad to first take steps for dismantling the terror infrastructure so that the soil of Pakistan was not used for attacking India by the militants.Manmohan Singh has reiterated his willingness to "walk more than half the distance" to normalise ties if Pakistan acts to stop terrorist attacks on India.This is what he had stated when he had met Pakistan President,Asif Ali Zardari,in Russia.But so far there has been no direct communication from Islamabad conveying to Delhi the steps it had taken to dismantle terror infrastructure.Instead it has been telling India that it has already launched a war against the Talibans.Prior to the meeting between Manmohan Singh and Gilani the foreign secretaries of the two countries,Shivshankar Menon and Salman Bashir,are scheduled to meet to enable Menon to find out what had Islamabad done to dismantle terror infrastructure and to bring to book the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.The success of the talks between Manmohan Singh and Gilani depends on the follow-up action Islamabad has taken to end the menace of terrorist activities.Islamabad may be wrong if it believes that the recent statement of Zardari,in which he stated that the successive Governments in Pakistan had created and nurtured militants,would amount to the dismantling of the terror infrastructure.In the NAM summit in Egypt about 100 heads of the states are expected to take part.Well it would be in the inrterest of peace in the Indian subcontinent if some heads of states intervened to resolve the irritants that have delayed normalising ties between India and Pakistan.If a couple of heads of states help India and Pakistan to come closer both Delhi and Islamabad should welcome this initiative.If the two sides fail to come to some agreement it would be the story of another missed opportunity for promoting peace.If the two prime ministers fail to bridge the gulf it would be they met to meet again.
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