Beginning Sunday

Delhi and Islamabad said this was not a summit for intense negotiations and ringing declarations. The limited purpose was to identify a few areas of agreement and set a date for Singh’s visit to Pakistan. The lull in cross-border attacks and Zardari’s bold liberalisation of Pakistan’s trade policy towards India provided the positive political context. The PM has been insisting that he would visit Pakistan only if substantive agreements were in hand. The announcement that the PM would indeed travel to Pakistan soon suggests the two leaders have agreed on some broad outcomes from the visit. Senior officials from both sides will now sit down to translate the political understanding into specific agreements.

So far so good. The real test for Singh and Zardari,however,begins now. There are enough spoilers on either side to limit the possibilities. The army,the militant groups and Zardari’s countless political opponents in Pakistan come readily to mind. The conservative elements in the Congress,the BJP and the habitual hawks in Delhi’s bureaucratic establishment have always demurred at Singh’s penchant for normalising ties with Pakistan. Yet it is not difficult to visualise a solid trade agenda for Singh’s visit to Pakistan that promotes economic integration. Singh and Zardari,however,will find the big political issues a lot trickier. India wants progress in bringing the Mumbai plotters to book and,more broadly,on dismantling Pakistan’s terror infrastructure,issues on which Zardari has limited room for manoeuvre. Pakistan,in turn,wants a grand political gesture on Kashmir-related issues,especially the Siachen dispute that Singh might find it hard to deliver. Whatever the undeclared political understanding between Singh and Zardari might be,they must demonstrate real leadership in the coming weeks to rally domestic political support.