The announcement by Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on national security and foreign affairs, that he would be in New Delhi on August 23 for talks with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, is welcome news, even though the Ministry of External Affairs has let it be known that the information had not yet reached it through official channels. Once the visit is announced, it will give both countries an opportunity to work out a way to ensure a sustainable bilateral engagement. Evidence that New Delhi and Islamabad are working towards such an objective has been sorely missing. If anything, over the last year New Delhi’s approach has been tentative, and in blow-hot, blow-cold mode. Prime Minister Narendra Modi got off to a splendid start by effusively calling leaders of the neighbouring countries to his swearing-in ceremony in May 2014, but events since then have left much to be desired, and there has been a lack of meaningful follow-up where Pakistan is concerned. By August, the Foreign Secretary-level talks had been called off at the eleventh hour on the rather unconvincing ground that the Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi had met leaders of the Hurriyat Conference. Such meetings had over the years become so routine that news about them would raise nary an eyebrow. It bears reiteration that when Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif met again at Ufa where they attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, hopes for an honest bilateral engagement were once again kindled by a joint statement that promised, among other things, meetings between the National Security Advisers, the Director-General of the BSF and his counterpart from Pakistan Rangers, and the two Directors-General of Military Operations.
Regretfully, thereafter the situation along the border deteriorated. There was a needless flap over a Chinese-made drone that Islamabad alleged was a sign of India’s mischief-mongering. There were a couple of attacks, one in Dinanagar in July and another in Udhampur this month, and then a Pakistani national was apprehended. On the issue of terrorism, neither India nor Pakistan has ever been short of talking points. The challenge that both Mr. Doval and Mr. Aziz will face will relate to how New Delhi and Islamabad should work to transform the relationship to something more meaningful and durable than one that is episodic, and where once a handshake between the Prime Ministers is officially recorded, things revert to recrimination and acrimony. Their first task will be to have a working ceasefire going along the LoC. It would be best as a sign of serious intention if it could be put in place before Mr. Modi goes to Islamabad for the 19th SAARC summit.
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