India and Pakistan agree to talk about future talks

After eight months of holding back, Indian and Pakistani premiers meet in Bhutan for an exercise in 'mutual comprehension' Sanjay Kapoor Thimpu/Bhutan 

In a move fraught with interesting possibilities, Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan agreed to resume the long delayed dialogue process. This decision was the outcome of more than an hour-long meeting that took place between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart, Yousof Raza Gilani, in Bhutan House, which they called  an exercise in 'mutual comprehension'.

What is also interesting about the meeting that took place after eight months is the decision to 'assess and analyse' the reasons that are holding back relations between the two countries. In an attempt to give heft to the SAARC framework, the Foreign Secretary, Nirupama Rao, who addressed the media, said that both the leaders realise that the region would not be able to actualize its full potential till India and Pakistan did not find a solution to their problem.

The two leaders spent about an hour together before they called in their foreign ministers and secretaries. The positive ring to the talks was facilitated by Pakistan's prime minister reiterating his country's resolve of not allowing their territory to terrorists to launch hostile attacks against India. Gilani also promised speedy trial of the accused in the 26/11 attack.

Rao told the press that there was a lot of soul-searching between the two leaders about how to normalise relationship while the foreign ministers and secretaries were mandated to analyse the reasons behind the stasis between the two countries. In some ways, this is an important admission that shows a brave attempt to disown the past to set a new agenda for the future.

 Hardnews was also told this is a devise to put a pause to the unceasing demand from Pakistan to resume the 'composite dialogue process'. Although the Pakistan Foreign Minister Mahmood Shah Qureshi seemed buoyed by the talks and also interpreted it as the resumption of the composite talks.

This is the first serious engagement between the two countries after talks hit a serious air pocket in Sharm-el-Sheikh when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to rescind his stated position on unhinging talks with terror and also discussing Baluchistan. Singh had come under extraordinary pressure of the Congress High Command that did not want the country to back off from the official position of compelling Pakistan to give up terror as a state policy. In some ways, the latest decision is a more conservative start to something that is perceived to be unavoidable: returning to the negotiating table.

Although, the time table of the talks have not been revealed, but it is apparent that hereon things would start moving fast. US government has shown great interest in the SAARC summit - it has come here as an observer. A US official, Robert Blake, was sent to Thimpu and he also chipped in his bit by saying that his country always 'encouraged' talks between the two countries as it was also 'good for the region'.

Other members of the SAARC have shown impatience and weariness over the unending feud between the two countries and how it has been destabilising this regional compact. There have been suggestions emanating from these countries that India-Pakistan find a separate mechanism to ensure that summits, like these, do not get devalued.