The talks between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan at Thimphu on the resumption of bilateral dialogue appear to have gone off well. Since February 2010, attempts by the two sides to restart the bilateral engagement that India broke off over the November 2008 Mumbai attacks have not made much headway. Despite initial promise, the July 2010 meeting between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad ended up in another impasse. The main disagreement was over Pakistan's insistence that the resumed dialogue between the two sides must schedule talks about the Kashmir issue, which India linked to Pakistan making tangible progress in punishing the perpetrators of the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The two sides also differed over the format of the dialogue. Pakistan favoured continuing the “composite dialogue” while India preferred a new format. It is not clear if Sunday's meeting succeeded in breaking the stalemate. What is significant is that the two senior officials reiterated the importance of dialogue in order to settle “all outstanding issues” between the two countries. It is encouraging that Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistan counterpart, Salman Bashir, took care not to publicly air all the problematic issues that must have come up in their discussion. Often when things start going wrong in India-Pakistan relations, the two sides use the media to wage proxy wars. That the 90-minute meeting was followed by a common press release is a good sign. It is to be hoped that the officials can soon work their way to holding a meeting of the Foreign Ministers, and to an announcement of the formal resumption of the dialogue process.
Despite what cynics on both sides say, engagement is the only way forward for India and Pakistan. Talking may not lead to an immediate resolution of all the problems between the two countries but, as recently underlined by former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Ahmed Kasuri, the India-Pakistan dialogue of 2004-2007 brought about a significant narrowing down of differences on major issues such as Kashmir, Siachen, and Sir Creek. On the other hand, the absence of dialogue leaves a damaging vacuum that hate-mongers on both sides rush to fill, and will eventually lead to a hardening of positions. New Delhi's demand that Pakistan act against terror groups plotting attacks on Indian soil can be addressed only through talks. While India is correct in demanding that Pakistan act expeditiously to bring to book the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, it could set an example by ensuring swift investigation and punishment for those involved in the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta train in which 60 Pakistani nationals were killed.
