ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: More than five months after India unilaterally pulled out of a foreign secretaries’ meeting with Pakistan, the Indian foreign secretary is due to visit Islamabad shortly albeit on the pretext of a regional contact tour.

The visit of Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar was announced after Indian premier Narendra Modi called Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as part of his contact with leaders of South Asian countries taking part in the cricket World Cup.

A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said: “Prime Minister Modi informed the prime minister that India’s new foreign secretary will soon visit all Saarc counties and would also like to visit Pakistan.”

Prime Minister Modi also tweeted: “Would be sending our new foreign secretary on a Saarc Yatra soon to further strengthen our ties.”

Prime Minister Sharif accepted Mr Modi’s proposal of a visit by the foreign secretary, but said Pakistan would “discuss all issues of common interest” during the interaction.

The announcement came a day after US President Barack Obama called Prime Minis­ter Sharif to update him about his administration’s efforts for improving Pakistan-India ties. The United States had been nudging India to normalise relations with Pakistan after a spate of skirmishes along the Line of Control in Kashmir and Working Boundary that added acrimony to the relationship between the neighbouring countries.

A peace dialogue between the two countries broke off in Jan 2013 due to rising cross-LoC incidents and has since remained suspended. Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif had during a meeting in Delhi last May, on the occasion of the former’s inauguration, agreed to hold a meeting of the foreign secretaries in Islamabad in August. But India backed out at the eleventh hour on the excuse that Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit had consulted Kashmiri leaders before the meeting.

Following the cancellation of the foreign secretaries’ meeting, Pakistan stuck to its position that the onus of reviving the dialogue was on India because it was the one that had suspended it.

Besides President Obama’s call, another development that went largely unnoticed in Pakistan was a meeting of High Commissioner Basit with new Indian Foreign Secretary Jaishankar.

The dominant view here is that the Saarc tour is a convenient cover for reaching out to Pakistan, while not being seen as climbing down from the position the Modi government had taken vis-a-vis ties between the two countries.

The decision of resuming engagement with Pakistan was taken at an Indian envoys’ conference held in Delhi last week, according to a Delhi-based source.

Among the factors that pushed Mr Modi to rethink his Pakistan policy, one appeared to be an alliance his Bharatiya Janata Party intends to make with India-held Kashmir’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for government formation in Srinagar.

Resuming engagement with Pakistan was one of the key PDP demands.

A diplomat at the Foreign Office, while sharing is personal opinion, said Mr Modi had timed the announcement of Mr Jaishankar’s visit in a manner that his party would not appear to be bucking under PDP pressure on its demand for resuming engagement with Pakistan.

A regional government is likely to be formed by Feb 22 in Srinagar.

The recent defeat of the BJP in Delhi’s regional elections, an Indian analyst said, was yet another reason behind this development. “The Modi sarkar (government) is looking for ways to divert attention from the electoral setbacks for his party,” he said.

The US president’s good offices were perhaps the best way for the Indian government to mend fences with Pakistan.

Prime Minister Modi himself plans to visit Colombo next month. Meanwhile, newly elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena is due in the Indian capital on Saturday. Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid recently paid a six-day visit to Delhi and Mr Modi has visited Bhutan and Nepal during the past six months. Therefore, reaching out to all South Asian countries at the foreign secretary level makes no sense.

According to statements from both sides, Indian Foreign Secretary Jaishankar would visit all the Saarc countries, including Pakistan, but reports in New Delhi said he would discuss the format for future talks with Islamabad while there.

This indicates that Pakistan’s former national security adviser Mahmud Durrani was more clued in than he was given credit for earlier this month when he told The Hindu newspaper that Mr Modi was likely to resume talks with Islamabad, but in his own way. Mr Durrani had met Indian National Security Adviser Ajeet Doval and Mr Jaishankar.

Mr Modi tweeted on Friday morning that he had spoken to Mr Sharif and the heads of other Saarc countries whose teams are playing in the World Cup to wish them luck.

According to NDTV, Mr Modi joked about Nawaz Sharif playing in a warm-up match for World Cup in 1987 alongside cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.

Mr Sharif reportedly laughed and said: “Kash woh din dobaara aata (I wish those days would come back.)”

After breaking the ice with cricket, the two leaders went on to discuss diplomacy, sources told NDTV.

It said Mr Modi sounded out Mr Sharif on India’s initiative to send Mr Jaishankar on a “Saarc yatra”, or tour of South Asian countries, including Pakistan.

According to NDTV, Mr Sharif then discussed the possibility of resuming foreign secretary-level talks.

India, according to the news channel, said the foreign secretary would discuss bilateral issues during his visit.

“Spoke to President @ashrafghani, PM Sheikh Hasina, PM Nawaz Sharif & President Sirisena. Conveyed my best wishes for the Cricket World Cup,” Mr Modi said in a tweet. “Five Saarc nations are playing & are excited about the World Cup. Am sure WC will celebrate sportsman spirit & will be a treat for sports lovers… Cricket connects people in our region & promotes goodwill. Hope players from Saarc region play with passion & bring laurels to the region,” Mr Modi said.

Published in Dawn February 14th , 2015

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