India, Pakistan foreign secretaries to meet on 25 Aug - Livemint

India’s foreign secretary Sujatha Singh. Photo: Hindustan Times

New Delhi: India and Pakistan announced that the foreign secretaries of the two countries will meet in Islamabad next month to explore ways to carry forward their official dialogue stalled for more than a year.

This is the first meeting at the foreign secretary level in two years and comes against the backdrop of an innovative effort by newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve ties with India’s immediate neighbours.

Analysts saw the development as a movement towards the resumption of official-level talks, though foreign ministry officials described the meeting as “talks about talks”.

The last time the two foreign secretaries met was in Islamabad, in September 2012, ahead of a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries.

The meeting scheduled for 25 August between India’s foreign secretary Sujatha Singh and her Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry flows from a meeting between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan on 27 May in New Delhi. In keeping with his “neighbourhood first” foreign policy approach, Modi had invited the heads of government of India’s immediate neighbours to attend his oath-taking ceremony on 26 May. A day later, Modi met with each of the leaders—from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka—and discussed ways to propel bilateral ties to a higher plane.

“It is almost two months since the prime ministers agreed that the foreign secretaries will remain in touch and explore how to move forward,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said. “I can now confirm to you that the foreign secretaries had a telephonic discussion,” he said.

He explained that there were two elements to the foreign secretaries’ conversation on Wednesday.

“One was obviously how to move forward and they have agreed that they should meet to take this process forward as directed by the two prime ministers.

“That said, since there have been incidents of firing along the international boundary, foreign secretary Sujatha Singh used the opportunity to raise this issue. She recalled that incidents of this nature will impede the positive work that the political leaders of the two countries wish to undertake. She also reiterated that meaningful cooperation between our two countries cannot take place alongside violence and sounds of bullets on the border. To us, as to Pakistan, the maintenance of peace and tranquillity on the (de facto) line of control (in disputed Kashmir) is one of the most important CBMs (confidence building measures),” Akbaruddin said.

A statement put out by the Pakistan foreign office confirmed that Singh had spoken to Chaudhry on Wednesday afternoon.

“During the conversation, it was agreed that the two foreign secretaries would meet in Islamabad on August 25, 2014, to carry forward the dialogue process,” the Pakistani foreign office statement said. “In keeping with the vision of the two Prime Ministers to improve and establish good neighbourly relations, the Foreign Secretaries agreed that the dialogue process between the two countries should be result-oriented,” it added.

Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh said the Singh-Chaudhry meeting was “the beginning of the resumption of the official dialogue” between India and Pakistan. “If India has any issues it should sort it out at this meeting,” he said, adding that such contacts would pave the way for a meeting between Modi and Sharif on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.

A person familiar with the developments said the two foreign secretaries would be examining how to move the India-Pakistan dialogue process forward—aimed at resolving disputes, including that over Kashmir.

According to the person cited above, the meeting “cannot be taken as the resumption of the dialogue process. It is a one-off meeting to explore how to move forward, what should be the format and the structure of the dialogue process”.

India and Pakistan resumed talks, derailed by the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, in 2011 and trade was seen as the main driver of the dialogue with both countries announcing a series of measures to improve economic ties, including exchanges of trade delegations, India allowing Pakistan to invest in India, and signing a pact on liberalizing visa norms.

However, the killing of Indian soldiers along the Line of Control in Kashmir in two separate incidents—in January and August last year—and the repeated violation of the 2003 ceasefire pact resulted in stalling the peace process. India was also miffed by Pakistan not keeping to its promise of normalizing trade relations and granting India most-favoured nation status by December 2012 according to World Trade Organization rules. Bilateral trade between India and Pakistan in 2013-14 was less than $3 billion, according to the Indian commerce ministry.

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