INDIAN and Pakistani foreign ministers said today they have a responsibility to mend ties between the two countries to reduce tension in the region, made all the more urgent with a US troops drawdown in Afghanistan looming.
Expectations of a breakthrough in peace talks remain low, but the fact the South Asian rivals are talking is a sign that neither side wants to slide back towards conflict in the world’s most dangerous region.
Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, began talks in New Delhi focused on confidence-building measures, such as relaxing trade and travel restrictions across a ceasefire line dividing disputed Kashmir.
They are unlikely to make much headway on the thorny territorial issue of Kashmir itself, or on fighting militancy.
“We come here with a positive outlook, we feel that the relationship between the two countries should not be held hostage by the past that the two countries have faced,” Khar, Pakistan’s first female and youngest-ever foreign minister, said in her opening remarks, standing next to Krishna.
The US has also stepped up efforts to bridge the divide between the neighbours. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited New Delhi last week and urged them to work on ties as well as stabilising the volatile region.
As in previous peace efforts, progress has been slow and vulnerable to any attempts by Pakistan-based militants, fighting for a Muslim Kashmir, to try to trigger a war by launching another Mumbai-style attack.
But both sides kept their cool in the aftermath of a triple bomb attack in Mumbai this month that killed 24 people and injured more than 130. Police have yet to identify the suspects but security analysts suspect the home-grown Indian Mujahideen.
In the past, the success of talks has often come down to personalities. Last year a news conference by then-Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Krishna descended into a public tit-for-tat spat.
Attention will this time fall on how Khar, only appointed last week, manages her highest-profile foreign trip yet and Krishna, often criticised for lacking diplomatic clout.
A sense of goodwill is apparent, although it is too early to say whether that will last given the mutual distrust and domestic issues which have often abruptly halted any progress.
Pakistan is keen to move forward on discussing the disputed territory of Kashmir, while India wants its neighbour to bring to justice suspects not just behind 2008 Mumbai attacks, but also a number of other attacks against India.
But efforts to focus on less contentious issues may be the best way to steadily reduce distrust, say diplomats.
