Jaishankar, Qureshi in Dushanbe, no bilateral meeting scheduled so far despite speculation

The MEA remained silent about the possibility of Jaishankar holding a bilateral meeting with the Foreign Minister of Pakistan

Though both External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart in Pakistan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, are at Dushanbe in Tajikistan to attend a conclave on Afghanistan, the two sides have not yet scheduled a bilateral meeting between them on the sideline of the multilateral event.

Jaishankar and Qureshi separately arrived at Dushanbe on Monday to take part in the ninth ministerial meeting of the “Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process”, a multilateral initiative to end the conflict in Afghanistan.

Islamabad did send informal messages to New Delhi through back-channels, exploring the possibility of a meeting between Jaishankar and Qureshi on the sideline of the “Heart of Asia” meeting in Dushanbe. But as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government decided to tread cautiously, no such meeting has been scheduled till late in the evening on Monday, sources in New Delhi told DH.

Read: Jaishankar arrives in Tajik capital to attend key conference on Afghanistan

Jaishankar and Qureshi will join counterparts or representatives from Russia, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkey at the Heart of Asia meet in Dushanbe on Tuesday.

Qureshi spoke to his Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, on Sunday.

The UAE purportedly played a behind-the-scenes role in making the Indian Army and the Pakistan Army agree on February 25 last to strictly adhere to the 2003 ceasefire pact and stop firing across the Line of Control (LoC). A day later, the External Affairs Minister hosted the UAE Foreign Minister in New Delhi and the two had a meeting.

A news agency recently reported that they had a discussion on the possibility of working out a roadmap towards restarting the stalled talks between India and Pakistan.

Read: Jaishankar meets Iranian counterpart; discusses bilateral cooperation

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi, however, did not confirm or deny the UAE’s role in back-channel efforts to make the two South Asian neighbours return to the table of negotiation.

Qureshi also spoke to Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud ahead of his visit to Dushanbe.

Jaishankar had a bilateral meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on the sideline of the Heart of Asia meet hours after arriving in Dushanbe. The MEA, however, remained silent about the possibility of his holding a bilateral meeting with the Foreign Minister of Pakistan.

Asked if he is likely to hold a bilateral meeting with Qureshi during his stay in Dushanbe, Jaishankar said at an event last Friday that his schedule was still in progress but no engagement with Pakistan Foreign Minister had been scheduled till then. Qureshi, himself, purportedly said in Dushanbe on Monday that no bilateral meeting between him and Jaishankar had been scheduled so far.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on March 17 said that his counterpart Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi would have to first make the move to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue between the two nations. The chief of the Pakistan Army, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, on March 18 said that it was time for his country and India to bury the past and move forward. India, however, put the onus back on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere for the resumption of the bilateral dialogue.

“The onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere including by taking credible, verifiable and irreversible action to not allow any territory under its control to be used for cross border terrorism against India in any manner,” V Muraleedharan, the Minister of State for External Affairs, informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question on March 18. “India desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan and is committed to addressing issues, if any, bilaterally and peacefully in an atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence.”

New Delhi had suspended its formal bilateral talks with Islamabad in January 2013 after Pakistan Army personnel had brutally killed two Indian Army soldiers along the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K.

Though the Modi Government had in December 2015 agreed to restart the engagement between the two neighbours as Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue, the attacks on the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot in Punjab and on the Indian Army’s brigade headquarters at Uri in J&K by the terrorist outfits based in Pakistan derailed the process.

The Indian Army’s “surgical strike” on terrorist camps in Pakistan in September 2016, the terror attack on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel at Pulwama in J&K and the retaliatory bombing by the Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft on the terror camps in the neighbouring country in February 2019 worsened the relations between the two nations.

Islamabad also launched a global campaign against New Delhi to protest against the Modi Government’s August 5, 2019 decision to strip J&K of its special status and reorganize it into two Union Territories.

But when the armed forces of the two nations last month agreed to stop firing across the LoC and adhere to the 2003 ceasefire agreement, it fuelled speculation about back-channel talks between New Delhi and Islamabad for exploring the possibility of restarting the stalled bilateral dialogue.