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Friday March 29, 2024

Two-minute diplomacy

By our correspondents
December 02, 2015
It is rare that a two-minute conversation, the content of which no one was able to hear, is able to provoke such frenzy. The ‘chance’ meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris on Monday led to an inordinate amount of media speculation on both sides of the border, with TV channels going into overdrive by screening the short video repeatedly and asking analysts to share their opinion on what it meant as far as foreign policy was concerned. Such is the state of relations between the two nations that ‘who made the first move’ and whether terrorism or Kashmir were brought up became major issues of debate after a seriously short chat between the two prime ministers. The reality of what may have ensued was much more sober. The leaders of two countries that are drifting further apart at the wrong time in their respective histories decided to acknowledge each other’s presence. PM Nawaz Sharif got it right when he called the talks ‘good’ and ‘pleasant’ and pointed to the need for the two countries to adopt the path of dialogue. There is nothing more to be said about the meeting other than it was an ice-breaker.
And yes, it is true that ice-breakers are important when it comes to the two countries, but ice-breakers have the ability of being remarkably underwhelming in predicting what direction relations between our two countries will take. Earlier this year in July, a short meeting between Modi and Nawaz on the sidelines of the SCO summit was taken to be an indicator that Pak-India talks would resume. Later, after an acrimonious fall-out, talks between the national security advisers of India and Pakistan were cancelled at the last moment. The optics of who talked more – in this case the Indian PM – do not matter so much. Under pressure from home and abroad over growing intolerance in India, it is the Indian prime minister who is more in the need of showing a softer side. Already Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan has weighed in on the side of fellow actor Aamir Khan, who has been under pressure for speaking up about intolerance in India. The unfriendly climate in India for Pakistani artists, cricketers and writers is well-documented. By meeting on the sidelines of the climate change summit, Modi and Nawaz have reduced the heat between Pakistan and India temporarily. That is all that can be said about the short meeting until more substantial measures are taken.