India looks for result-driven talks with Pak

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Future progress on the India-Pakistan engagement especially in regard to terror will be driven by outcome on the issues New Delhi flagged during the first formal talks between the National Security Advisers.
The Bangkok meeting between NSA Ajit Doval and his Pakistan counterpart Lt Gen Naseer Khan Janjua (retd) last Sunday is part of a well thought out and crafted strategy based on two foundations — continue response in a strong measure to any provocative acts on the border and engage in discussions across the table on all issues, senior government officials privy to discussions told The Tribune here.
The Modi government is clear the resumption of talks with Pakistan was to convey New Delhi’s preparedness to hold talks with authorities in Islamabad that takes forward the spirit of Ufa where terrorism was put high on agenda while moving towards discussion on outstanding issues.
There is a clear demarcation in the nature of engagement, one that takes forward the issue of terrorism that India wants Pakistan to address, including progress in trial against perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and the bilateral dialogue whose nomenclature stood changed from Resumed Dialogue to Comprehensive Dialogue.
The future of the engagement (on terror) will be “outcome-driven”, officials who are part of the formulation said adding unlike the past when the talk about terror would be explained away as result of problems on account developments in Jammu and Kashmir and its fallout, there was greater receptivity from the other side.
Devoting a good part of the four-hour NSA-level talks to terror, India put on the table evidence it accumulated in cases. While giving the benefit of the doubt to Islamabad in a few instances, India managed to convey its concerns backed by firm and watertight evidence, they said.
The Foreign Secretaries of both countries are to meet next month to work out the modalities of the comprehensive dialogue and the level of interaction in various working groups, the modalities and scheduled of the meetings.
 
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