NSA Menon 'influenced' Indo-Pak FS talks on Feb '10

NEW DELHI: The US lauded Indian handling of the first talks between then foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on February 25, 2010, since the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

The meeting did not yield much, instead it descended into an exchange of barbs between New Delhi and Islamabad. But the timing of the talks with Pakistan might have had more to do with the "influence" of the new Indian national security adviser, Shivshankar Menon.

This was an assessment shared with the US by the Indian official, G V Srinivas. The US mission in Islamabad took a slightly different line on the talks. In a cable describing talks with Pakistan's official in-charge of India, Afrasiab, it "claimed that the Pakistanis will focus on trying to persuade the Indians to resume the composite dialogue. Afrasiab argued that, as the larger country and the one with global ambitions, India should show greater understanding and flexibility toward Pakistan. He said that the SAARC meeting of interior/home ministers had been postponed yet again, likely until June."