NEW YORK: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been faulted for cancelling a high-level meeting with Pakistan’s top foreign affairs official irked by a meeting of a Kashmiri leader with Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi.

“There are no two countries in the world that need to talk, and talk regularly, more than these nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours whose tensions must be carefully managed”, the New York Times editorial board said in a lead article.

Noting the significance of talks, the NYT said that “cancelling the meeting was an over-reaction on India’s part, especially when it could have served as an opportunity to discuss grievances and press for a solution.”

Also read: Cancellation of Pak-India talks unfortunate, says US

It observed that “absent such an airing, there is a tendency on both sides to escalate the tensions, with the Indian news media emphasising Mr Modi’s willingness to take a tough stand and Pakistan asserting it was not subservient” to India”.

“There will always be political excuses not to take risks”, the newspaper said Mr Modi, who won a huge victory in the May election, is in the strongest political position, while Mr Sharif is facing street protests led by politicians seeking his ouster.

What’s needed is a meeting between the leaders to establish a continuing dialogue. Next month’s United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York offers a good venue. It would be foolish and dangerous to let this episode destroy the chance for a more stable relationship.”

The Times said: “Mr Modi raised expectations that he would work harder at resolving cross-border differences when he took the unorthodox step of inviting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, along with other regional leaders to his inauguration in May. The photo of the two men shaking hands came to symbolise the promise of that moment.

“But that felicitous picture seemed a fading memory when, on Monday, India cancelled foreign-secretary-level talks, which would have been the first in two years, that were scheduled to take place in Islamabad on Aug 25. The proximate cause was India’s anger over a meeting that Pakistan’s ambassador to India held with a separatist leader from Kashmir, the disputed territory over which the two countries have fought three wars.”

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014