Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar begins part one of his “SAARC yatra” on Sunday, on a visit that will test his diplomatic skills, particularly as he travels to Pakistan to engage the government for the first time since talks were cancelled last year.
According to sources, the Pakistan government is planning to take up cross-LoC firing in recent months, accusing India of “unprovoked” firing as well as allegations of India’s “military build-up” along the border and the LoC during the talks. India has accused Pakistan of more than 600 instances of “ceasefire violations” in Jammu and Kashmir since January 2014, but Pakistan’s Army Chief Raheel Sharif claimed during a visit to the LoC on Thursday that “repeated Indian ceasefire violations on the (International) Boundary and the LoC in the recent past was a distraction for Pakistan from its campaign versus terrorism,” and that India could expect a “befitting response.”
Mr. Jaishankar will land in Thimphu by a special flight on Sunday, followed by Dhaka on Monday, from where he will travel to Islamabad on Tuesday and Kabul on Wednesday. Even as senior government officials sought to dub it a “SAARC yatra, not a Pak (Pakistan) yatra”, Pakistan will be the focus, given that it is the only SAARC country India doesn’t have an active engagement with at present.
In Islamabad, officials called Mr. Modi’s decision to send the Foreign Secretary a “welcome development” even as they are “cautious but optimistic” that the visit will bear any fruits, saying all initiatives to take the relationship forward would now depend on India, given that India cancelled the process last year. “We have made it clear we will not run behind the Indian government for talks,” senior member and spokesperson for the ruling PML-N, Senator Tariq Azim Khan, told The Hindu . “And the perception in Pakistan is that the talks have come out of President Obama’s meeting with PM Modi, rather than only from India’s initiative.” Mr. Jaishankar will also engage with Pakistan on SAARC issues as it takes over the Chairmanship of the South Asian grouping.
Ahead of the Foreign Secretary’s meeting, a track-II conference of retired officials, parliamentarians and journalists (including from The Hindu ) from India and Pakistan met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s advisor on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi. A statement by the group said it hoped Mr. Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad and “the resumption of dialogue would be the start of a sustained effort towards building a peaceful, friendly and cooperative relationship,” by picking up the thread from “the Simla agreement and the Lahore declaration.”
The Foreign Secretary’s first stop in Thimphu is likely to be the smoothest part of his visit, given that he arrives there within months of visits by Prime Minister Modi, and President Pranab Mukherjee, as well as visits to India by Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay. In Dhaka, he is expected to discuss the issues of the Land Boundary Agreement, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament for clearance, as well as the Teesta water settlement, given the nod by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her visit to Dhaka last week. Prime Minister Modi is understood to have told Sheikh Hasina about his intention to visit Dhaka “very soon” when he spoke to her ahead of the Foreign Secretary’s visit.
Mr. Jaishankar’s visit to Kabul will be equally significant as it comes ahead of President Ashraf Ghani’s trip to India at the end of March, and ahead of an imminent announcement on talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Government officials have played down speculation that Mr. Ghani’s government has tilted towards China and Pakistan, given his visits to Beijing and Islamabad in recent weeks, maintaining that India’s commitments to Afghanistan as a strategic partner and major donor remain strong.
In the next phase of the SAARC yatra, Mr. Jaishankar will visit Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, each of which has seen significant political developments in the past few weeks, and will have his work cut out for him, as he prepares to take forward the government’s “neighbourhood first” policy initiatives across the region.
