India, Pak back to the future

After a suspense-breaking dialogue here between the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and his Pakistan counterpart, Mr Yousaf Raza Gilani, that lasted over an hour on Thursday, it has been decided that the foreign ministers and the foreign secretaries of the two countries would lay the groundwork “as early as possible” in an effort to “normalise” relations, and to “work effectively to enlarge the constituency of peace in both countries”.

Meeting for a substantive conversation with Mr Gilani for the first time since the Sharm el-Sheikh talks last July which raised a controversy in India, Dr Singh made it plain that there was a lack of mutual trust in the relationship between the two countries.

Asked if the Singh-Gilani engagement in the Bhutanese capital did not amount to a resumption of the comprehensive dialogue process that Pakistan has insistently demanded, the foreign secretary, Ms Nirupama Rao, who briefed the media, said she would not be drawn into categorising the discussion between the two Prime Ministers.

“We are not getting stuck on nomenclature. The process is aimed at building more trust,” she said. Responding to a question, the foreign secretary said the Pakistan Prime Minister did not raise the allegation of India assisting anti-Pakistan terrorists in Balochistan. In his press briefing on Thursday’s talks, the Pakistan foreign minister, Mr Shah Mehmood Qureshi, confirmed this. The mention of this theme in the joint statement issued at Sharm el-Sheikh had raised hackles in India.

Dr Singh told Mr Gilani that terrorism aimed at India from Pakistani soil, the rise of infiltration in Kashmir, and the slow progress in Pakistan on the trial of those who planned and executed the 26/11 Mumbai attacks had been a stumbling block.