Let’s talk, India tells Pakistan

India wants to restart talks with Pakistan and has formally asked Islamabad to arrange a meeting between foreign secretaries of the two nations.

Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi said on
Thursday his high commission in Delhi had been asked to talk to external affairs ministry officials and decide on the time and venue for the ice-breaker.

Quereshi told an Indian television channel, “This is a good development and we are willing to talk about everything from water, Kashmir, terrorism and anything else on the table.’’ Though Pakistan will insist on reviving the composite dialogue, it is likely that prime minister Manmohan Singh will take a more measured approach since public outrage against the Sharm-el-Sheikh joint statement.

Fourteen months after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, the UPA government has made a ‘cost-benefit review’ of its policy of not talking to Pakistan and realised there is nothing to be gained by not engaging with its archrival.

The government believes a gradual calibrated engagement is the best option. The meeting of the foreign secretaries may work towards a bilateral meeting at the highest political level between Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani during the Saarc summit in Bhutan in April.

India regards Pakistan’s decision to use terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s confessional statement as evidence to prosecute planners of the Mumbai attacks and other evidence with respect to boats used to ferry attackers from Karachi as constructive signals.

“It is good India is making a move towards talks,’’ said former diplomat Arundhati Ghosh. “While the rest of the world understands India’s problems, I find more and more people questioning our policy in the region. International opinion is for constructive engagement,’’ she explained.

Top officials say the government has been working on reviving talks behind closed doors for many months. National security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon’s induction into the prime minister’s office was an indication that talks with Pakistan would be top of the agenda. Menon was India’s high commissioner to Pakistan and knows the country and its politics well. However, home minister P Chidambaram’s talks with his counterpart Rehman Mallik at the Saarc meeting in Islamabad later this month will give an indication of Islamabad’s seriousness in getting justice for 26/11 victims.

Delhi is being nudged by the US and Nato powers to mend fences with Pakistan, and ensure its military can focus on the fight with al-Qaeda, Taliban and other jihadi elements at the Afghanistan border.