India, Pakistan start afresh with new dialogue architecture, special focus on terror

ISLAMABAD: In a diplomatic breakthrough, India and Pakistan have decided to put months of bickering behind and start afresh by launching a new dialogue architecture, with terrorism given an added salience in their resumed engagement.

The new dialogue framework can be described as “composite dialogue plus,” with the two sides agreeing to add two more areas, including religious tourism and humanitarian issues, to the earlier 8-point format, which stalled after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Christened Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue, it will cover Peace and Security, CBMs, Jammu & Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project, Economic and Commercial Cooperation, Counter-Terrorism, Narcotics Control, Humanitarian Issues, People to People exchanges and religious tourism.

The new template was unveiled after wide-ranging talks between India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Sartaj Aziz, Foreign Affairs Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad on December 9.

“We have decided to start afresh and call the commencement of dialogue as comprehensive bilateral dialogue. It was earlier known as ‘composite’ dialogue, which later came to be known as ‘resumed’ dialogue,” Ms Swaraj said at a joint press conference with Mr Aziz.

“All pillars, which were present in composite and resumed dialogues, will be there in the comprehensive bilateral dialogue, besides some other issues can also be added to it,” she said, indicating that the new format will be a more open-ended one. “To move the comprehensive bilateral dialogue forward, we have asked the Foreign Secretaries of both the countries to chalk out schedules and modalities,” added Ms Swaraj.

Acknowledging the success of the National Security Advisors’ (NSAs) meeting in Bangkok on December 6, Ms Swaraj said it helped break the ice between both countries which culminated in her visit to Islamabad.

Announcing the resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan, Ms Swaraj refused to get into too many details emphasising that she had to first make a statement on the development in India’s Parliament on Thursday.

The details of negotiations leading to the breakthrough joint statement are not clear, but it seems there was a generous give and take. India, which was earlier opposed to reviving the composite dialogue in its earlier format, has accepted Pakistan’s long-standing demand of discussing all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, with the Modi government putting its own stamp on it by enlarging the scope of the dialogue. Pakistan, on the other hand, seems to have accepted the centrality of India’s core concern on terrorism by agreeing to terror-specific discussions at the level of NSAs, which was decided after the meeting between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in the Russian city of Ufa in July.

The added salience on terror in the new dialogue framework is evident as this is the first time that the NSAs of the two countries will play an active role in talks between the two countries. “NSAs will continue to address all issues connected to terrorism,” said the joint statement. Earlier, terrorism related issues were handled by the foreign secretaries of the two countries under the composite dialogue.

The Indian side was assured yet again “of the steps being taken to expedite the early conclusion of the Mumbai trial”, according to the joint statement.

While the resumption of dialogue between the two prickly nuclear-armed rivals should be welcomed, the success of the revived engagement will depend on strong political will and sincerity by both sides to address each other’s core concerns by being mindful of each other’s sensitivities. Otherwise, as it has happened so many times in the past, the December 9 meeting will go down as yet another false start in the accident-prone India-Pakistan relations.

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