Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit may have just provided the opening for India and Pakistan to re-engage after the NSA-level talks were called off at the eleventh hour last month. Top level South Block sources said that India could even contemplate a “return to the spirit of Ufa”, Times of India in a report said Friday.
In an interaction with journalists for an Indian TV programme, the Pakistani envoy said, “The fundamental reason for the cancellation of talks was that we differed on the interpretation of the Ufa agreement. We never wanted to broaden the agenda. We wanted the NSAs to speak only on terrorism, and we had many things to discuss on that. But we wanted to use the opportunity to discuss the way forward as well.”
Both Basit’s comments and India’s response, albeit off record, provide the first sign that both sides may be hitting reboot on what was a bruising bout through July and August. Next week’s security talks between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers are still on track. It’s not yet clear whether the DGMOs will meet as well to look for ways to quieten the borders.
Neither side has mentioned a possible New York meeting between Modi and Sharif. But many believe it would be the best way to break the ice and go back to what is now being called the “spirit of Ufa”. At Ufa, the idea was for India and Pakistan to go back to a phase of broad engagement. But things swiftly went south, both as a result of the heightened cross-border violence and two terror attacks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur. Also, Pakistan’s civilian leadership was perceived to have failed to deal with internal pressure on their decision to hold talks on terrorism but not on Kashmir.
To be fair, India’s attitude in the last few days before the NSA talks showed little sophistication, the newspaper commented. The Indian insistence on Pakistan being the one to call off the talks added to the bitterness and sharp rhetoric. The government –from PMO to the home ministry — was remarkably liberal with its dossiers on Dawood Ibrahim to journalists, some of which was apparently inaccurate. Pakistani media reported that one address for Dawood given by India actually belonged to Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi.
