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India’s Modi arrives in Pakistan on first visit as premier India’s Modi makes a surprise pit stop in Pakistan, creates diplomatic buzz
(about 2 hours later)
ISLAMABAD — India’s Narendra Modi arrived in Pakistan on Friday, his first visit as prime minister to this Islamic nation that has been India’s long-standing archrival in the region. NEW DELHI — A surprise visit to Pakistan by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Friday pressed the reset button on the blow-hot-blow-cold relationshipbetween the two nuclear-armed neighbors, paving the way for official dialogue to resume next month.
The previously unannounced visit is a potential sign of thawing relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. The two heads of government also had an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks earlier this month. On his way back from Afghanistan, Modi stopped over at Lahore for an unscheduled meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, after a surprise announcement on Twitter that sent analysts on both sides of the border into a tizzy.
Since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, the Himalayan region that both countries claim. The last time an Indian prime minister visited Pakistan was in 2004. Sharif, however, came to India last year to attend Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.
Modi landed on Friday afternoon in the eastern city of Lahore and met with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, state-run media reported. The visit coincides with Sharif’s birthday and the wedding of his granddaughter. After addressing a joint session of the Afghan parliament early Friday, Modi tweeted that he greeted Sharif on his birthday and that he is “looking forward to meet PM Nawaz Sharif in Lahore today afternoon, where I will drop by on my way back to Delhi.”
Security was beefed up at the Lahore International Airport shortly before Modi’s arrival. Earlier in the day, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said India had informed Pakistan about the visit on Friday. He refused to share any further details. The two leaders met for a little less than two hours at Sharif’s festively lit ancestral home in Lahore, where they talked about improving ties.
One of the first public signs of the visit came Friday morning when Modi, during a stop in the Afghan capital of Kabul, tweeted that he is “looking forward to meeting” Sharif in Lahore, “where I will drop by on my way back to Delhi.” He said he also called Sharif and wished him happy birthday. “Beyond the noise, a personal connect. The Prime Ministers discuss India Pakistan relations,” tweeted Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs. He added that Modi met Sharif at his home as “a special gesture” and blessed the latter’s granddaughter ahead of her wedding.
Sharif’s sprawling residence had been colorfully decorated for his granddaughter’s wedding reception when Modi arrived along with the Pakistani prime minister. The two leaders were later shown sitting together in a room looking happy and relaxed. India’s NDTV 24x7 news channel called it “Modi’s masterstroke.” In Pakistan, the phrase “birthday diplomacy” trended.
Analysts viewed the visit as a potential turning point in Pakistani-Indian relations. [Old chasm between India and Pakistan again echoes with warnings and fears]
“I think it is going to play a significant role in improving ties between the two South Asian archrivals,” said Amanullah Memon, a professor of international relations at Preston University in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. A statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the leaders “expressed their desire to carry forward the dialogue process for the larger good of the people of the two countries.”
Amitabh Matto, an Indian foreign policy expert, described Modi’s birthday diplomacy visit as a “very positive step.” Pakistani security analyst Rifaat Hussain said the symbolism of the visit is “huge.” He added that the meeting is likely to have been preceded by some “behind the door” preparation.
“Any step toward trying to stabilize and provide a new beginning to India-Pakistan ties is welcome and needs to be supported by all those who believe that India and Pakistan have a common destiny and it is in their interest to fight together their common problems, including terrorism and economic under-development,” he said. Modi’s colleagues in his Bharatiya Janata Party said, however, that there was no secret back-channel planning and that the meeting was spontaneous.
Tarun Vijay, a spokesman for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party, praised Modi’s visit as a sign of statesmanship. “This is the best Christmas gift to the mankind which believes in peace and amity. He has risen to the commanding heights of being a statesman who can take a bold step surprising his friends and foes but melting ice in the relations,” Vijay said “It was a spontaneous but bold and innovative decision to visit Pakistan,” said Nalin Kohli, a spokesman for the BJP. “The India-Pakistan story has many difficult issues lingering for decades. It is not an easy path ahead. But the two leaders are trying to establish a personal equation that can add momentum to the structured process of official talks in the future.”
After a year of rising tensions, top security officials from India and Pakistan held talks in Thailand’s capital earlier in December, discussing a range of issues, including Kashmir and ways to maintain peace along the countries’ shared border. Also, two weeks ago, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan to attend a meeting on Afghanistan. The two leaders last met during the climate change conference in Paris in November, chatting briefly.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies. More than 68,000 people have been killed in ongoing Kashmir violence, which began in 1989. Analysts said the prospect of the Friday meeting was probably kept hidden till the last minute to prevent the irrational expectations and acrimony that often accompany any such diplomatic move.
A cease-fire along the so-called “line of control” that serves as the border between Indian and Pakistani-held Kashmir has largely held since 2003, but cross-border firing and minor skirmishes are fairly common, with each side routinely blaming the other. Since independence from British colonial rulers in 1947, the two countries have fought two of three wars over Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed in its entirety by both but divided between them and administered separately.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key separatist leader in the Indian portion of Kashmir, said: “It’s a welcome step. We hope that it is followed by a consistent policy of engagement to resolve the Kashmir dispute. India and Pakistan have to evolve a mechanism to involve the core party to the issue — that is the Kashmiri people.” [The new normal along the border]
India also wants Pakistan to bring to justice Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 168 people. Saeed lives openly in Pakistan and often appears on TV interviews; the government claims it lacks the evidence to charge him. The foreign secretaries of both nations are scheduled to meet in January. Masood Ahmad Khan, a former Pakistani diplomat, said Friday’s meeting suggests “a political will at the highest level and is, therefore, important, symbolically and substantively.”
___ This is not the first time the Modi government has conducted stealth diplomacy. Earlier this month, the national security advisers of both countries met secretly in Bangkok, away from the media’s glare.
Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report. The chairman of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto, said in a tweet, “Constant engagement is the only way to resolve all outstanding issues.”
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Some opposition leaders in India said Modi’s diplomacy should move beyond grandstanding and focus on tangible outcomes.
“It is utterly ridiculous. You do not conduct diplomacy at the apex level in such a cavalier manner,” said Manish Tewari, a senior leader of the Congress party. “The relationship between India and Pakistan is perhaps the most complex, convoluted and intricate relationship between two nuclear weapon states.”
A high-level meeting between the two neighbors was canceled earlier this year because of disagreements, and frequent firing across the border has led to a war of words.
“The prime minister over the last 18 months has done somersaults, cartwheels and U-turns in his entire engagement with Pakistan,” Tewari said, adding that Modi’s “adventure” has “serious implications on India’s national security.”
Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.
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