Indo-Pak talks the buzz in Islamabad

Indo-Pak ties have once again become the talk of diplomatic circles in Islamabad as the two nations gear up to bridge trust deficit through people-to-people interactions and official channels.

The diplomatic community here is looking at the series of upcoming talks between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours with a lot of optimism.

Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir will first sit across the table in the safety of Margalla hills, after which home minister P Chidambaram will arrive for the Saarc interior ministers’ meeting to sort out spying conundrums. External affairs minister SM Krishna will be the next visitor in mid-July.

Hectic activities among diplomats in the past couple of weeks bear testimony to how the world has all of a sudden realised that without bringing India and Pakistan to the table, the regional mess
cannot be sorted out.

There was the farewell party of the ultra-busy Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui, a cigar club get-together at the residence of ‘the jetsetter of the diplomatic corps’ Argentinean ambassador Rodolfo Martin Saravia and the visiting brigades of American hi-fi dignitaries, including Richard Holbrooke, but the hot topic of the day was regional cooperation and the developing configuration vis-a-vis the American exit strategy from Afghanistan.

Diplomats in Islamabad are of the view that between the 60-year-old strategy of conflict management and the new doctrine of conflict resolution, both India and Pakistan need to exorcise ghosts of the past to develop a platform from where both can take off towards internal and external prosperity and peace.

Whatever mileage was achieved through cricket diplomacy, the Lahore Resolution, former president Pervez Musharraf’s four-point road map or at Sharm el-Sheikh seems to have long been consumed by political and military adventures.

For the past 60 years, both countries, with or without the support of foreign visitors, have focused on conflict management, a policy aimed at containment by closing the borders and TV channels and visa controls, which ultimately resulted in more mistrust, misgivings, accusations and finger-pointing.

Therefore, one can only hope better sense prevails in these new initiatives. Taking small but meaningful steps might help the cause of peace and prosperity.