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NEW DELHI: Indian and Pakistani officials met here on Friday to decide the agenda for high-level bilateral talks proposed by India over a year after the terror attacks on Mumbai. India has come under international pressure in recent months to re-engage Pakistan and help the West stabilise Afghanistan, where the two countries are involved in a proxy battle for influence.
New Delhi’s offer of talks comes after global powers endorsed an Afghan plan to seek reconciliation with the Taliban in which Pakistan will likely play a key role. The move could have ripple effects on the battle against militants in Pakistan and efforts to get Islamabad to go after the Taliban, by reducing its logic of keeping massive forces on the eastern border with India. “I will get back to my foreign office, my government on the discussions that I held ... We have to find a mutually convenient time and a date,” Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik said after meeting Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.

Indian officials said the meeting was constructive and they were waiting for Pakistan to get back with a date. They said India had offered open-ended talks on all outstanding issues affecting peace and security, emphasising counter-terrorism. Pakistan has called for resumption of full-scale Composite Dialogue on a range of issues, including disputed Kashmir. “Dialogue is the only way forward ... we are not getting into detail. All possible issues which are of concern to Pakistan or India will be discussed,” Mr Malik said.

“Kashmir is an issue we have been raising with India at every possible opportunity and forum. Terrorism would certainly be one of the areas of discussions because we have issues relating to terrorism and this is something that affects Pakistan,” he said. New Delhi’s talks offer comes in part due to US pressure to reassure Pakistan so that it can focus on fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda on its western border with Afghanistan. Many in India also see the strategy of “coercive diplomacy” against Pakistan failing to get any more concessions on acting against the Mumbai attack planners, even as global sympathy for the attacks wanes with time. But any progress is likely to be slow, especially considering political opposition on both sides of the border. “Expect incremental progress but no breakthrough,” Lalit Mansingh, India’s former foreign secretary, said. “This is abject surrender to Pakistan,” said Prakash Javdekar of main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. “The unanimous position in India was there will be no talks with Pakistan unless there was credible action against the Mumbai attackers,” Javdekar said.—Reuters