QUICK EDIT: India and Pakistan must shun hype and move forward
The secrecy maintained by India and Pakistan over the National Security Adviser (NSA) talks between the two countries held in Bangkok signals a change in strategy to initiate a dialogue.
Lately, the media hype, followed by high-pitched rhetoric from the two sides ahead of the scheduled meetings, has played spoilsport.
India’s stand that the talks cannot go ahead if Pakistan brings to the table the agenda of Kashmiri separatists led to the cancellation of meetings between national security advisers and foreign secretaries earlier.
The real test lies in how New Delhi will deal with the situation if Pakistan continues to engage with Kashmiri separatists
The last few days have been a harbinger of some bonhomie. Once again it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif who seemed to have broken the ice in Paris - just like they did in Ufa, Russia, a few months back.
In Ufa the two leaders had decided to resume the peace dialogue that eventually got derailed, with the Kashmir separatists being the flashpoint and thus the cancellation of the NSA level talks.
This time after the prime ministers met in Paris, it appears a firm decision was taken to ensure that the dialogue should resume.
NSA Ajit Doval and his counterpart Nasir Janjua met in Bangkok without making a noise about it, and now External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is headed to Islamabad to attend a conference on Afghanistan where she will meet her counterpart, Sartaj Aziz.
Aziz has called it a good start, but hopes that the talks continue.
But the real test lies in how New Delhi will deal with the situation if Pakistan continues to engage with Kashmiri separatists, since the Modi government has taken a zero tolerance view on this.
On the other hand, Pakistan made it clear last time when NSA talks were called off that Delhi had no right to tell Islamabad whom to talk to.
The two prime ministers have broken the deadlock for the second time, but only time will whether it will a lasting one.
For a breakthrough in India-Pakistan relations, the two nations have to be less rigid to give peace a chance.
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