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Thursday March 28, 2024

Thaw in Pak-India ties?; India to attend PIC meeting in Lahore

By Web Desk
March 03, 2017

NEW DEHLI: The World Bank’s efforts to mediate between Pakistan and India on the Indus Waters Treaty have started to bear fruits as India accepted invitation to attend meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) to be held in Lahore.

According to Hindustan Times, the development ‘signals a major shift in its (India’s) position on talks with Pakistan on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT)’.

The meeting is expected to be held later this month.

According to officials privy to the development, the move came after two months of diplomatic negotiations, with World Bank officials playing mediator in encouraging Pakistan to extend the invitation and for India to accept.

The news closely follows the visit of World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva to Delhi, where she met with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, weeks after her visit in January to Islamabad, where she met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Officials acknowledged that the holding of the next annual round of the PIC, which was last held in July 2016 was a “positive” sign, given that India had announced it was “suspending” the talks after the Uri attacks in September.

According to senior government officials at the time, the decision to suspend the talks had been taken when Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with key officials, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, to “review” the IWT.

Asked if the scheduling of the talks now in March despite the previous decision meant a climbdown in India’s position or whether terror attacks had in fact decreased in the past few months, the MEA did not offer an official comment.

“It is a regular bilateral meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission which implements the Indus Waters Treaty,” a senior official told The Hindu, denying that there was any “shift” in India’s position.