Indo-Pak talks, formal & informal: Kathmandu, Geneva set the stage

Later in the week, in Geneva, a high-profile cast of officials and policy analysts from India, Pakistan and the US will come together under the aegis of the Pugwash peace organisation, for a workshop called ‘‘South Asian security.’’

The label, participants acknowledged, is a euphemism for focusing on issues the international community has continued to be concerned about in South Asia. Such as, reviving the dialogue between India and Pakistan, possible nuclear conflict as well as promoting confidence-building measures between the two countries.

The timing of both meetings in Nepal and Switzerland, after elections in Kashmir as well as in Pakistan well out of the way, has also not escaped analysts here. And although both New Delhi and Islamabad continue to steadfastly hold to their respective positions on cross-border terrorism and dialogue, the off-the-record Geneva conference clearly hopes to whittle away at preconcieved notions.

Significantly, while there are no officials from India or the US attending the conference, Pakistan has had no such qualms. Islamabad is sending Brig. Naem Salik, director of arms control in the Strategic Plans division from its army headquarters in Rawalpindi, additional secretary Aziz Khan from the Foreign Office as well as Abdul Basit, its representative to the UN in Geneva.

But mark the rest of the high-profile Pakistani list: Former chief of staff Jehangir Karamat, Maleeha Lodhi, recently returned from a successful ambassadorship to the US; former Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar, now on a UN human rights panel, as well as Lt Gen Asad Durrani, former director-general of the ISI. Nor are the Americans being left behind.

The US is being represented by none other than Shirin Tahir-Kheli, a former member of George Bush Sr’s National Security Council, and well-known on the India-Pakistan Track Two circuit. Then there’s Farooq Kathwari, author of the Kashmir Study Group, which has focused on soft borders and confidence-building measures in Kashmir.

The Indian team consists exclusively of private individuals, all of whom however are said to command some influence in the enormous twilight zone that makes up the category called ‘‘India-Pakistan.’’ There’s former Foreign secretary M K Rasgotra, former Principal secretary N N Vohra, Gen. Satish Nambiar of the USI, Jasjit Singh, editorial consultant with The Indian Express and former director of the IDSA; and strategic analysts C Rajamohan, Amitabh Mattoo and Kanti Bajpai.

Back in Kathmandu, joint secretaries from the ministries of Commerce, External Affairs and Finance were representing India at the back-to-back SAFTA and SAPTA meetings which started today, even as Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee returned after attending a regional Committee on Economic Cooperation.

Chatterjee would not say whether Pakistan’s refusal to offer most favoured nation status to India was discussed at his meeting but agreed that the fourth SAPTA round would go into the final list of tariff concessions to be offered by each SAARC country.