While there was no bilateral breakthrough between Pakistan and India when Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Islamabad for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit last week, a positive takeaway was the manner in which courteous exchanges replaced traditional hostility.
Jaishankar briefly indulged in the usual Indian rhetoric of “cross-border terrorism,” but made no direct reference to Pakistan, couching his words in diplomatic discretion. This follows a slow, but steady thawing of ties—frozen after Delhi’s unilateral abrogation of Kashmir’s special constitutional status—with the neighboring states in 2021 issuing a joint statement to observe the 2003 ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC). In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace, the two Directors General of Military Operations also agreed to address each other’s core issues and concerns.
Despite the anti-Pakistan rhetoric that is a hallmark of the BJP-led Indian government, Delhi has repeatedly asserted it desires normal relations with Islamabad in an environment free of terror and violence. To achieve this, claims India, Pakistan must take credible, irreversible and verifiable action to end cross-border terrorism. To support its claims, Delhi points to Islamabad’s delay in bringing the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks to justice. Pakistan, meanwhile, has routinely accused India of funding cross-border terrorism, particularly in Balochistan.
Needless to say, cross-border terrorism remains one of the most sensitive issues between the neighboring states and a chief source of their tense ties. However, there is some light, as both countries agree that reviving trade between them would prove beneficial to each other’s general public. While Jaishankar’s SCO visit failed to yield any significant outcomes, it has opened a new avenue for dialogue that was previously lacking. If both states pledge to take this forward in an open and frank manner, there is no reason to believe they could not achieve a mutually beneficial détente. However, the specter of Jammu and Kashmir continues to loom over any such efforts and until the longstanding dispute is resolved, any progress in bilateral engagement is unlikely to produce desired results.