A beginning in Islamabad

It comes as no surprise that there was no breakthrough between India and Pakistan at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government in Islamabad. External affairs minister S Jaishankar had made it eminently clear that his visit across the border, the first by an Indian foreign minister in nine years, was more about the multilateral meeting and had less to do with taking forward the bilateral relationship.

However, it has to be noted that Jaishankar has also said in recent weeks that India will respond to every Pakistan-related development, whether positive or negative. In that context, there were no fireworks of the sort witnessed at the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa last year. India’s was a dignified presence, where Jaishankar outlined what New Delhi expects of the Eurasian bloc and how it has not measured up to the SCO Charter, especially in terms of its original objectives of combating terrorism and separatism. Chinese Premier Li Qiang, in his address, highlighted the need to strengthen joint actions to fight terror. The Indian side also got across its point regarding the need to safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity, something that needs to be seen in the context of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had held up as a project for establishing a SCO connectivity framework.

The India-Pakistan interaction, whatever little could be witnessed in video footage, was cordial and minimal. There were exchange of pleasantries and brief conversations between Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, in informal surroundings though nothing substantial appears to have emerged. This breaking of ice could be seen as a beginning. That this happened at a time when a newly elected government was sworn in Srinagar, purely coincidental though, should prod Pakistan to look beyond its stated position on Jammu and Kashmir and accept the new paradigm. There are areas where India and Pakistan can quietly make a fresh start, trade and cricket being among them. There are reports of the revival of cricket ties figuring in Jaishankar’s informal conversations in Islamabad. This is surely the least contentious of issues, and combined with trade, could well become the start of a calibrated approach towards reviving bilateral ties. It is too much to harbour expectations of normalcy in relations, but this is a beginning that could lead to more substantial conversations and tangible gains.