India - Pakistan talks

After many hiccups, India and Pakistan got a dialogue going at the foreign secretary-level talks, with both nations trying to overcome the accumulated bitterness of years. Though the two sides only repeated their known stands on the vexed issues of Kashmir and terror, there was a discernible attempt to bypass the acrimony and make progress elsewhere — like exchange of views between defence thinktanks, banking, and more travel permits. India reiterated its concerns on terrorism, telling Pakistan there could be no peace under the shadow of extremist violence. Speaking at a joint press conference after two days of talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said: “The shadow of the gun and the violence it has unleashed has caused untold sufferings on our people in these years past. This needs to end.” Even as the two sides prepared to undertake of confidence building measures in the conventional and nuclear arenas, Rao said: “The ideology of military conflict should have no place in the paradigm of our relationship of the 21st century,” she said.
The J&K session saw a reiteration of the stated positions of both India and Pakistan. Salman Bashir said: “We both have well-known positions… but we would like to take it forward. Indian officials said they repeated their terror concerns to Pakistan — about the disclosures by David Headley during the Tahawwur Rana trial and the links between ISI and terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba. “While we understand India’s concerns on terror, this issue of terror requires collaborative approach,” Bashir said. According to sources, India told Pakistan it would hand over information on Samjhauta terror probe after investigations. India also asked Pakistan to check infiltration. India had brought down infiltration numbers on the international boundary, sources said, but on the LoC, there was still a fair bit going on. The task of reducing the “trust deficit” between the two sides is monumental. But certain proposals have been made to start new CBMs — meetings between India’s National Defence College (NDC) and Pakistan’s National Defence University is a first, joint seminars and conferences between defence thinktanks, even meetings between the two Coast Guards. This would be the first time the defence establishments on both sides would even get to know each other. There has been a feeling in India that it has conspicuously ignored engaging Pakistan’s all-powerful defence establishment, which resulted in India getting a somewhat incomplete picture. If this is acceptable to both sides, it would be a start. After the MV Suez incident, where India came off looking inadequate, the government has attempted to resurrect an old agreement to prevent incidents at sea.