Looking beyond the Modi-Sharif meeting in Ufa
- By Sajjad Malik
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 13, 2015
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Indian prime minister Narendra Modi with Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Ufa, Russia |
It has been more than a year since Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif travelled to India for the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as prime minister. The two leaders also met in India and pledged to start diplomatic engagements soon after Modi took oath. Their verbal commitment to initiate talks never got off the ground for several reasons. Instead, their armies were involved in one of the worst border flare-ups in recent memory toward the end of last year in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries.
The months leading up to the meeting of Sharif and Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Russian city of Ufa on July 10 were tense, as their officials had traded accusations about destabilizing each other through covert actions and proxy wars. Pakistan had also announced that it would raise the issue of India's interference in its affairs at the United Nations.
Against this backdrop, the sudden change of mood and meeting was a pleasant surprise. It happened just before the two countries were admitted to the Eurasian club of the SCO, showing that the two nations will have to set aside their differences and lower their typical level of rhetoric if they wish to be active in the SCO.
Apart from the symbolic importance, the meeting also led to some important agreements on topics such as the meeting of top officials, the release of prisoners and making efforts to eliminate the menace of militancy and terrorism from the region. The major breakthrough was the two countries' commitment to tackle disputes through dialogue. Another positive outcome of the hour-long talks was that the Indian prime minister accepted an invitation to travel to Islamabad next year.
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