Dec 11, 2015
News
Paris contributes in much-awaited ‘climate change’ in Pakistan, India
‘Finally, wisdom seems to have dawned on two prime ministers’MUMBAI – Indian politician and former adviser Sudheendra Kulkarni - a columnist who heads Observer Research Foundation - has said that the UN Climate Change conference in Paris has already contributed to a much-awaited change in the climate of bilateral relations between Pakistan and India.
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has returned from her maiden visit to Islamabad with a remarkable achievement: putting the badly derailed Indo-Pakistan dialogue process back on track. However, “the effort to rescue the baby of bilateral talks from the bathwater of the constant blame-game between our two countries began when India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on November 30 on the sidelines of the Paris conference,” he wrote in his fresh column for the NDTV website.
“Two things seemed suspiciously significant about the Nawaz-Modi get-together in France. First, the two leaders met for barely 120 seconds. But that they met at all said something, considering that barely two months earlier, all they had done was wave to each other across a table – no one-on-one meeting, not even a handshake – at the UN peacekeeping summit in New York. Such was the chill in Indo-Pakistan relations,” he pointed out.
In August, the visit of Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to New Delhi was called off at the last minute due to conflicting conditions for adviser-level talks set by Islamabad and New Delhi. The cancellation of Sartaj’s visit led to the usual war of words between political and media establishments in the two countries, habituated as they are to talking at and not to each other.
“However, the second aspect of the two-minute tete-a-tete between Nawaz and Modi was even more revealing. Sitting in an uncharacteristically informal setting, they seemed to be engaged in giving final touches to an understanding they had already reached, possibly through a longish telephonic conversation before coming to Paris or some prior back-channel negotiation between their trusted representatives,” Kulkarni said.
“Looking at the photograph of the meeting between the two leaders – both Nawaz and Modi displaying utmost concentration on their faces,” he said. “I was, as usual, viciously trolled by staunch Modi bhakts, most of whom are opposed to the resumption of talks. Mere mention of our neighbour's name is like holding up a red rag to a raging bull.I am absolutely confident that Nawaz-Modi meeting will soon produce some positive steps in breaking the deadlock,” he said.
“And the deadlock has indeed been broken by two swift developments, both being the direct outcomes of the climate-changing Nawaz-Modi meeting in Paris – first the ice-breaking talks between the national security advisers in Bangkok on December 6, followed by Sushma Swaraj's even more productive visit to Islamabad three days later,” said Kulkarni.
He pointed out that the significance of the December 6 talks in Bangkok transcended the framework of Pakistan-India ties. He said that the interlocutors of Nawaz and Modi were making December 6 a “day of peace”of sorts by laying in distant Thailand a small but strong brick to build the edifice of Pakistan and India reconciliation. The joint statement issued in Bangkok constitutes a 180-degree turn vis-à-vis the inflexible positions both the countries had taken in August, which led to the acrimonious cancellation of Sartaj’s much-anticipated visit to Delhi.
He said that Bangkok (talks) wiped out all traces of unnecessary squabble. The joint statement says that Pakistan and India, guided by the vision of a peaceful stable and prosperous South Asia, would resume discussions covering peace and security, terrorism, Jammu Kashmir, and other issues, including tranquility along the Line of Control in the divided state. The joint statement issued after Sushma Swaraj's meeting with Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad has broken more ice, and hence contributed even more to removing the chill in Indo-Pakistan relations.
Kulkarni said that Sushma’s Pakistan visit certainly demonstrates that the two countries were happily veering towards a common understanding on the issue of terrorism. In the Islamabad statement, the two sides have condemned terrorism and resolved to cooperate to eliminate it. “The reference to mutual cooperation in the fight against terrorism is highly significant,” he said.
In addition to the issues mentioned in Bangkok, the Islamabad joint statement has broadened the basket of subjects that Pakistan and India would discuss in the months to come – Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project, economic and commercial cooperation, counter-terrorism, narcotics control, humanitarian issues, people-to-people exchanges and religious tourism. Fittingly, the two sides have called it the comprehensive bilateral dialogue, which is just another name for the stalled composite dialogue which Islamabad and New Delhi had initiated way back in 1997.
“This is yet another proof of the Modi government adopting the path of change with continuity – rathermore continuity than change. One hopes that Modi shows the vision and boldness to continue, indeed further build on, the consensus framework to resolve the highly contentious Kashmir issue, which his predecessors Dr Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had discussed with their Pakistani counterparts,” the Indian politician said and also mentioned the reference of “Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove,” a book by former foreign affairs minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.
He said that perhaps the most important remark Sushma made in Islamabad was when she said it was time for Pakistan and India to display maturity and self-confidence to do business with each other. “Obviously, there is an admission in this statement that the governments of both Pakistan and India were somewhat lacking maturity in taking the bilateral ties forward after Modi's spectacular gesture of inviting Nawaz Sharif to New Delhi for his swearing-in ceremony in May 2014,” he said.
“Thereafter, the dialogue process, devoid of clarity and political will, followed the sad pattern of one step forward, one step backward. Finally, wisdom seems to have dawned on the two prime ministers. Let us hope they stay committed to the path of meaningful and result-oriented talks, irrespective of criticism and provocations of any kind,” he said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk