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Leaders of India and Pakistan Hold Rare Meeting India and Pakistan in ‘Common Agenda’
(about 17 hours later)
NEW DELHI — Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, met on Tuesday with his new Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in a swiftly arranged bilateral session that caught many by surprise and offered some hope that the two countries may resume a tentative peace process after a year and a half of frosty silence. NEW DELHI — Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, said on Tuesday that the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India would meet in the near future, indicating that he sees momentum toward reviving stalled peace talks between the two nations.
Mr. Sharif was one of seven leaders invited to Mr. Modi’s swearing-in on Monday because Pakistan is a member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, but the ceremony was overshadowed by his interactions with Mr. Modi, a Hindu nationalist who has little track record in foreign policy and used hard-line oratory on Pakistan during the parliamentary campaign. Mr. Sharif’s statement came after a 50-minute meeting in New Delhi with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, who had hastily organized a gathering of South Asian regional leaders for his swearing-in on Monday.
But Pakistani officials have expressed optimism about the prospects for peace, noting that the last burst of progress came in the late 1990s, when Mr. Sharif held power concurrently with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the last prime minister from Mr. Modi’s party, Bharatiya Janata. “I explained to the prime minister that we have a common agenda of development, which is not possible to achieve without peace and stability,” Mr. Sharif told reporters, stressing that it was a time for conciliation, not for “accusations and counteraccusations.”
“I intend taking up threads from where Vajpayee and I left off in 1999,” Mr. Sharif told a reporter from NDTV. Asked by a journalist what outcome he expected from his meeting with Mr. Modi, Mr. Sharif recited an Urdu couplet that translates as, “cling to the tree and hope, for spring is in sight.” A senior Pakistani official in Mr. Sharif’s entourage, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif had agreed that their foreign secretaries would address “all issues, without exception,” and that the two leaders had discussed the thorny matter of Kashmir at length on Tuesday.
It was the first visit to Delhi by a Pakistani leader since the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, which dealt a serious setback to the relationship between the two countries. Initially scheduled to last for 35 minutes, the meeting went on for nearly an hour. The Indian account of the meeting was less upbeat. Mr. Modi emphasized security issues, calling on Pakistan to expedite the trials of suspects in the 2008 Mumbai bombings and to ensure that the guilty are punished, the Indian foreign secretary, Sujatha Singh, said at a news conference.
One possible concession from the Pakistani side would be the extension of most-favored-nation status, which would allow Indian goods access to its markets, though Mr. Sharif is likely seeking a concession in return from Mr. Modi. “It was conveyed that Pakistan must abide by its commitment to prevent its territory and territory under its control from being used for terrorism against India,” Ms. Singh said. She was more vague about her own meeting with her Pakistani counterpart, saying they would “remain in touch and explore how to move forward.”
A major topic, Indian television reported, was the trials of suspects in the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, which killed 163 people. India has long complained about postponements and delays of the trial. Ms. Singh said the countries “could move immediately toward full trade normalization.” India extended most-favored-nation trade status to Pakistan many years ago and has been waiting for Pakistan to reciprocate.
Both Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif risked displeasing hard-liners in their own countries by taking part, and Mr. Sharif delayed for almost three days before accepting the invitation. In India, though, Mr. Modi’s landslide victory in parliamentary elections this month has meant the criticism was muted. Mr. Modi, who spoke about Pakistan in hard-line terms during his election campaign, caught many by surprise by extending invitations to Mr. Sharif and six other leaders of South Asian countries. Each of the leaders met with Mr. Modi for a bilateral discussion before flying home on Tuesday.
One voice of dissent came from the B.J.P.'s closest ally, the Shiv Sena, which has steadfastly opposed high-level engagement with Pakistan. But its leader, Uddhav Thackeray, attended Mr. Modi’s swearing-in on Monday and issued a statement expressing support for the new leader. Such a swift diplomatic move would normally prompt waves of controversy and dispute in India, including among Mr. Modi’s right-wing supporters. But his overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections afforded him an unusual degree of freedom.
“We trust the firm and decisive leadership of Narendra Modi and do not wish to put obstacles in his way at the very start of his term,” the statement said. He added, in a kind of warning, “if, despite this gesture, Pakistan doesn’t change, we expect Modi to take firm steps.” Mr. Sharif’s visit to New Delhi was the first by a Pakistani leader since the Mumbai terror attacks, which dealt a serious setback to the relationship between the two countries. The meeting was scheduled to last 35 minutes, but it ran over.
Mr. Modi’s swift arrangement of a regional summit — which in the past have been typically disrupted by waves of controversy and dispute within India –— has been hailed by many as a diplomatic coup, but further steps toward dialogue may prove difficult. Many Pakistani commentators turned critical on Tuesday after watching the Indian news conference, with its focus on terrorism. Some said Mr. Sharif had made a mistake by accepting the Indian invitation, and others said they wished he had responded by airing Pakistan’s grievances, particularly those concerning Kashmir.
Under the departing Congress-led government, both Islamabad and New Delhi took steps to establish a formal trade relationship, but talks were derailed repeatedly over security issues, finally coming to a halt after cross-border skirmishes in Kashmir early last year, when an Indian soldier was beheaded. Political analysts in India, on the other hand, were cautiously optimistic on Tuesday evening as details from the meeting filtered out. Siddharth Varadarajan, a journalist, said India might be drawn to the prospect of replacing the “composite dialogue,” a structure that was in use from the late 1990s until 2008, when the Mumbai attacks derailed the peace process. Under that structure, the two sides had simultaneously discussed a slew of issues, including Kashmir.
In Pakistan, meanwhile, many remain wary of Mr. Modi, whose strong economic record has been shadowed by controversy over religious riots that broke out in his home state of Gujarat in 2002 when he was its chief minister. Mr. Modi was widely blamed for failing to prevent the religious riots that raged for days after a train car carrying Hindu pilgrims was set afire. More than 1,000 people died in the riots, most of them Muslims. “I think for both Modi and Nawaz Sharif, this is a big leap they’ve made,” said Mr. Varadarajan, of Shiv Nadar University’s Center for Public Affairs. “Maybe for India and Pakistan, the steps are quite incremental, but for Modi and Nawaz personally, it’s a huge leap. They are dealing with their own domestic baggage and their own domestic demons.”
Mr. Sharif and Mr. Modi seemed to interact cordially at Monday’s ceremony and the banquet that followed it. He said that he was surprised by Mr. Modi’s initiative in inviting the foreign leaders to his swearing-in, but that it was logical to calm the waters after a campaign in which Mr. Modi spoke harshly of both Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Shortly after its end, Mr. Modi wrote on Twitter that “in my conversation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he shared some very emotional things.” The Pakistani premier, he continued, “told me that he stays in Islamabad, but goes to meet his mother once in a week. This time, when he was eating with his mother, he saw visuals on TV of my mother offering me sweets.” Raza Rumi, a policy analyst at the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad, Pakistan, said Pakistanis viewed the visit as an icebreaker between the two leaders and were not expecting much concrete progress.
He wrote, “the visuals touched both Nawaz Sharif ji and his mother. He told me that after seeing the visuals, his mother got very emotional." The use of the term “ji” is a sign of respect. Mr. Sharif “is very serious about India policy, about mending relations,” Mr. Rumi said, and senses “a major opening in terms of faith and an economic agenda now.” But, he added, Mr. Sharif sees Mr. Modi’s hawkish election oratory as an obstacle that would make it difficult to persuade the military to pursue peace.
The images of the last two days — a smiling handshake; warm commentary on social media from both camps; the two men “talking about their mothers, like typical South Asian sons” — may neutralize much of the ill feeling over the campaign rhetoric, Mr. Rumi said.
As Mr. Sharif flew out of New Delhi, his daughter, Maryam Sharif, wrote on Twitter, “Indian Prime Minister Modi refers to Prime Minister Sharif as a ‘man of peace.’ Hope negativity fails and peace wins.”
The two countries have tried in recent years to build diplomatic and economic ties, only to have their talks derail repeatedly over security issues and then stop completely after cross-border skirmishes in Kashmir early last year, when an Indian soldier was reportedly beheaded.
India is deeply frustrated by delays in the trials of seven men accused in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people. One of the men is Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the operational commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group that has received support from former Pakistani military and intelligence officials.
An open trial in the case, “assuming he has a decent lawyer,” would reveal the structure of that support, said Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Pakistan, for its part, seeks a “full-fledged resumption of the composite dialogue,” including issues like Kashmir, Mr. Tellis said.