All Eyes On Swaraj’s Sojourn to Pakistan

NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: Following series of surprise meetings between India and Pakistan which led to breaking of ice in the chilly bilateral relationship, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj  is today (Tuesday) traveling to Pakistan to attend a conference on Afghanistan. However the spotlight will be on her meeting with the Pakistani leadership, notably Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Swaraj is leading the Indian delegation for the ‘Heart of Asia’ Conference – a regional security meeting on Afghanistan scheduled to run from December 8 to 10 in the Pakistani capital. 

This will be first visit to Pakistan by an Indian foreign minister in three years.

During her two-day visit she will call on Sharif as well as hold talks with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz on the sidelines of the ‘Heart of Asia’ conference. 

In Islamabad, Aziz said he was looking forward to meeting Sushma Swaraj. “Talks are the only solution,” he was quoted as saying. “It is too early to say what the result of our mutual dialogue will be,” Mr Aziz told media in Islamabad. “For this you will have to wait for two more days, but it is a good start. The deadlock on negotiations has been lifted to some point, and we have to hope that the talks continue.” He said there have been breakthroughs in dialogue with Afghanistan and India and the Pakistani relationship with the two countries would now further be strengthened. “Matters of conflict between Pakistan and India would be discussed in the meeting and a road map would be devised to resume the composite bilateral dialogue during the visit”, he said.

The visit comes barely two days after talks between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan in Bangkok, where they discussed terrorism, Kashmir and a range of key bilateral issues apart from agreeing to carry forward the “constructive” engagement. Media reports suggest that a consensus was still elusive on how to take the stalled dialogue process forward, though Pakistan on its part succeeded in getting the Kashmir issue covered under NSA-level talks and foreign secretaries included in the meeting. 

During her visit, Swaraj will be accompanied by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who was also present during the four-hour-long meeting between India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Janjua in Bankok.

The joint statement after the meeting of NSAs said the talks were held pursuant to an impromptu meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the climate meet in Paris in November, rejecting the version given by the Indian side then that it was a mere “exchange of courtesies” although Sharif had told Pakistani media that he had a “good meeting” and “doors of dialogue should open”. The statement had said that the discussions covered peace and security, terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, and other issues including tranquility along the LoC (Line of Control).

Before Paris, Modi and Sharif had held bilateral meeting in Russian city of Ufa in July this year where they decided that their NSAs would meet to discuss all “terror-related” issues.  However, Pakistan had called-off Aziz’s visit after New Delhi had made it clear that he would not be allowed to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders in the Indian capital.

Speculation was rife in both the capitals that the two sides decided to hold NSA level talks in Bangkok to allow Pakistani delegation to skip the customary meeting with the Hurriyat Conference leadership during their India visits.

The last visit by an Indian external affairs minister to Pakistan was almost three years ago when former Foreign Minister S M Krishna travelled to Islamabad in 2012 and the countries inked a visa liberalisation pact.

The NSAs will meet again soon, but in keeping with the new policy of staying away from the media glare no detail will be shared till it happens, reports said.

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