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| After Rao-Bashir talks interest focusses on K-Q dialogue | | |
If one had expected some breakthrough in narrowing the existing trust deficit between India and Pakistan at the talks held between the foreign secretaries of the two countries on the sidelines of the SAARC foreign secretaries meeting in Thimpu in Bhutan one was mistaken.Yes,India's foreign secretary,Nirupama Rao,and her Pakistani counterpart,Salman Bashir,had a 90-minute meeting where they discussed many issues. Though the two sides claimed that the talks were held in a cordial and positive atmosphere, there were no signs of a breakthrough as far as hammering out certain irritants were concerned. This is evident from one cryptic remark of Nirupama Rao.When she was asked about the next step she replied "we need to wait and see."This indicates that Rao may have suggested Bashir to take some correctives in hand so that New Delhi was satisfied with the steps Islamabad had taken on penalising the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks and on dismantling the terror infrastructure so that the soil of Pakistan was not used for exporting terror to India. Hence Rao has stated that India needs to wait and see what response its ideas and suggestions receive from Pakistan.
After the bilateral talks, rather the composite parleys, were suspended following the Mumbai carnage in 2008,the decision to reopen the channels of the process of dialogue was taken when the two Prime Ministers,Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani,met on the sidelines of the SAARC meet in Thimpu in April 2010.That was followed by the foreign ministry level talks in Islamabad in July last year.There is no doubt that the Rao-Bashir talks at Thimpu reiterated both India's and Pakistan's commitment to promote cordial ties through the process of sustained dialogue,the meeting had been arranged simply to frame an agenda which could be discussd when the foreign ministers of the two countries,S.M.Krishna and S.M.Qyreshi(K-Q),meet in New Delhi.In fact Qureshi had mooted the idea of a foreign secretary level talks at Thimpu so that an agenda was framed which could facilitate the two foreign ministers to discuss directly the specifics of various issues instead of wasting time on setting the agenda.The two foreign secretaries have avoided saying anything whether they had succeeded in framing the agenda or not. This too may means that the two sides have either preferred to keep the agenda a secret or have not been able to finalise one.
If the two sides have had purposeful meeting it is because of good chemistry Rao and Bashir have. This good chemistry the two have displayed in the past also.But the lack of good chemistry between S.M.Krishna and S.M.Qureshi is said to be one of the reasons for the two sides not able to achieve a major breakthrough in narrowing down differences and conflict. It is not Krishna's fault.The fault lies with Qureshi who amply demonstrated his unwillingness to promote good chemistry during his talks with Krishna in July 2010 in Islamabad. In fact the Islamabad talks, despite cautious optimism expressed by the two sides, had proved a failure. Now Rao and Bashir have reiterated their commitment to keep the channels of dialogue open the success or failure of this exercise depends on the proposed Krishna-Qureshi talks in Delhi.Rao has stated that no single issue dominated her discussion with Bashir indications are that among many issues the one related to Kashmir may have figured prominently. It has to be because of Pakistan's fixation,rather obsession, with the Kashmir issue. Any future dialogue between the two sides cannot break if Islamabad moves. During these parlys, step by step. There are a number of issues apart from Kashmir that have bedeviled the relations between the two sides. And in the interest of bilateral relations Pakistan needs to resolve the issues concerning water, Siachen,Sir Creek and terrorism one by one and last of all it could seek a discussion for resolution of the Kashmir issue. If it insists on debating the Kashmir issue there are possibilities that talks may suffer a breakdown.(eom)
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