The government’s decision to resume contact with Islamabad, after suspending bilateral talks last month, is welcome. Prime Minister Narendra Modi must now follow through by meeting his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. This paper has reported that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh met Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit a few days ago and reassured him of Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to the normalisation of relations with Islamabad. There is no word yet confirming a meeting between Modi and Nawaz Sharif, but Delhi must actively seek one during the brief period when both of them are in New York.
Last month, Delhi called off Sujatha Singh’s visit to Islamabad in protest against Basit’s meetings with the Hurriyat leaders. The decision was widely criticised as an impulsive response to the High Commissioner’s contact with the Hurriyat that has become routine over the last decade and a half. The move seemed to negate Modi’s special effort to encourage Sharif to attend his swearing-in ceremony at the end of May and begin his prime ministerial tenure with a positive approach to Pakistan. Whatever might have been the logic in suspending talks with Islamabad last month, prudence appears to have returned to Delhi’s Pakistan policy.
