Delhi keeps door open for Pak on diplomacy

NEW DELHI: Even after Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s demolition act before the media, the Indian foreign policy establishment sees in the debris of diplomatic nicety quite a few things worth salvaging. Chief among them is the Pak desire to continue talking. And New Delhi is keeping its doors open.

Reactivation of the judicial commission on prisoners in each country who are citizens of the other could be one confidence building measure that could still happen, according to a source.

India has been offering to talk to Pakistan on the entire range of subjects save the three prime subjects of the composite dialogue that was axed after the November, 2008, attacks on Mumbai. The three subjects on which a structured dialogue would have to await significant progress in bridging the trust deficit are peace and security and confidence building measures, Siachen and Jammu and Kashmir. And bridging the trust deficit essentially means, for India, Pakistan taking credible action on anti-India terror emanating from its territory.

Indian policymakers are clear that they want the dialogue to progress to these subjects as well, but India prefers to move along a doable, gradualist approach, while Pakistan wants a timeline to be fixed now for talks on all subjects.
India has offered talks at the level of the secretary to the government on commerce, culture, water resources, etc, to discuss the issues of common concern in these areas. And the diplomatic establishment on the Pakistani side is entirely amenable to the proposal.

However, the two sides failed to reach a formal conclusion on holding these talks, as the Pakistani foreign minister failed to find acceptable the formulation that the Indian and Pak diplomats had worked out, namely, that the proposed talks would take place “at the appropriate time.” The formulation obviously offers wiggle room for both sides to negotiate and arrive at a mutually acceptable schedule of meetings, without scuttling the announcement of such meetings at the outset.