Modi-Sharif handshake in Paris sparks hope

The informal meeting on Monday between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Paris — during which Mr Modi could be seen explaining something animatedly to Mr Sharif — has once again revived hopes of a breakthrough in the stalled dialogue process between the two countries. Pakistan had, a few months ago, cancelled its participation in scheduled NSA-level talks in New Delhi after accusing India of imposing preconditions. The meeting has also triggered feverish speculation on whether external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will travel to Pakistan in the next 10 days to attend the Heart of Asia conference on the Afghanistan issue. India is deciding on its level of participation for the conference and another option may be to send minister of state for external affairs Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd.) instead. There is also speculation on whether Mr Modi will travel to Pakistan for the Saarc Summit in 2016. It also remains to be seen whether the two countries will resume cricketing ties.

The government sources cautioned against reading too much into the “handshake” but the animated conversation suggests that the two PM have maintained a rapport despite many difficulties in ties.

According to news agency reports, the leaders shook hands in a lobby of the conference centre following which they were seen talking animatedly. “PM @narendramodi meets PM Nawaz Sharif at COP 21 in Paris,” MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a picture of the two leaders shaking hands. However, no official details were immediately available on the chat between the two leaders.

This is the first meeting between the two leaders since Ufa in Russia on June 10, where they held bilateral talks and decided on number of steps to take forward the relationship.

Just recently, Pakistan had invited India to participate in the “Heart of Asia” conference on Afghanistan which will is expected to be held in Islamabad on December 7 and 8.

India had made it clear recently that it is committed to the Ufa initiative and that it is upto Pakistan now to agree to the decisions that were taken at Ufa by the political leadership of the two countries earlier. India had also made it clear that it was “more than willing” to start the process that was agreed in Ufa between the two Prime Ministers. Under the Ufa understanding, the next meeting ought to be between the National Security Advisors (NSAs) of the two countries on all issues pertaining to terror.

In September, Pakistan had cancelled scheduled NSA-level talks after accusing India of putting preconditions before a NSA-level meet on terror. While the scheduled NSA-level talks were to be only on the issue of terror——as decided earlier by the two countries—-Pakistan backtracked and had then given clear indications that it would raise the Kashmir issue at the talks.

In what was seen as criticism of India, Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi Abdul Basit had recently said that “unilateralism and preconditions were a recipe for gridlock” in ties and had asserted that “aspirations of Kashmiris can neither be ignored nor suppressed” while describing the Kashmir issue as the “root cause of all bilateral problems”. Mr Basit had said, “Unilateralism and preconditions were a recipe for gridlock in inter-state relations”, adding that he hoped “India would revisit its position as it defied logic to be locked in a perpetual conflictual relationship”.