After meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting last week, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told their bureaucrats that it had to be “talk, talk, talk” and not “fight, fight, fight” — and quickly. So despite the news about Pakistan’s Supreme Court dismissing the appeal of Sarabjit Singh, seeking a review of a death sentence imposed on him 18 years ago for spying and carrying out bombings (although he claims he strayed across the border one night when drunk), it appears that India-Pakistan talks are going to resume along structured lines, for the first time since the Mumbai terror attacks in November last year and days after the Russia summit meeting.
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India, Shahid Malik, is in Islamabad to help finalise the dates and the agenda for the forthcoming India-Pakistan talks, Pakistani media reports said, quoting official spokesman Abdul Basit.
Pakistani foreign office sources said the foreign secretary’s meeting might take place as early as next week.
Singh and Zardari had decided in Russia that the foreign secretaries would meet soon to review the steps taken by Islamabad to curb anti-India terror emanating from its soil. Pakistani reports said Malik was to attend a meeting in the foreign office to decide the issue on which talks would be held. It is highly unlikely that the ‘K’ word would not creep into the conversation. But it is clear that India and Pakistan are set to resume talks.
There have been gentle nudges in this direction from the United States, with a top US official saying the wishes of Kashmiris needed to be kept in mind too. But the ice between the two nations would appear to have broken.
