THE Heart of Asia conference was not expected to yield any significant bilateral or multilateral breakthroughs. Among India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the former two countries have diplomatically and verbally attacked the latter a great deal in recent months — driving a stake through the heart of the conference. Regional stability, let alone cooperation to counter common security threats, will remain an illusion unless the major regional powers embrace dialogue. In sending foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz to Amritsar, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made the right decision; it was a clear signal that Pakistan seeks to address all regional problems through dialogue. Mr Aziz and the Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit both repeatedly emphasised a message of peace and dialogue in the region.

Unhappily, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had something else in mind; both bluntly attacked Pakistan. Mr Modi seemed to go out of his way to slight Pakistan, with Mr Aziz mostly kept at arm’s length and relegated to a separate table at a dinner hosted by the Indian prime minister. Meanwhile, President Ghani, a central figure at a conference held essentially to find ways to assist Afghanistan, seemed more interested in venting his frustrations on Pakistan and pulling other rivals of this country closer in an ad hoc alliance against it. It made for riveting headlines, but in truth may have only set back further the cause of stability and peace in the region. The good faith in which Mr Aziz went to Amritsar was not reciprocated.

Now the challenge for the government here will be to determine how to proceed in a hostile regional environment. While the PML-N government has had a coherent message on both Afghanistan and India, it has not had much by way of strategy. It has neither been able to build bridges with the two countries nor persuade hawks at home, including in the military establishment, to adopt a more sensible approach. While dialogue is and should be the only path, there must be an understanding here of how to further discussions in an atmosphere where the Afghan and Indian leaderships are explicitly rejecting this path. What reciprocal gestures can Pakistan suggest, or which other regional and international powers can it turn to for a fairer reading of the situation in this part of the world? The PML-N brain trust must start thinking in more creative ways.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2016