Confirmation has come from the Pakistan’s national security advisor Sartaz Aziz himself that he will be traveling to India for the talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval. Pakistan had no option but to go ahead with the NSA-level talks as per the dates proposed by India. Now that Pakistan cannot cry India’s reluctance to talk.

The NSA-level talks in New Delhi on August 23-24 August will set the tone and tenor of the India-Pakistan engagement and decide if at all the two nuclear armed neighbours would be able to resume a bilateral dialogue or would continue their sabre rattling against each other.

The two NSAs are the most competent authorities to discuss what is ailing in the India-Pakistan bilateral relationship and what has to be done to carry on the dialogue trajectory to a meaningful level.

The first time structured talks under the NSA format, will bring all contentious and core issues on the table. The Indian point of view of the talking points will include Pakistan’s continued support to the terror activities in India and the recent spurt in cross-border firing and infiltration attempts from the Pakistan to India and other terror-related issues involving non-state actors in the Pakistan. Pakistan’s perspective will be, the first and foremost point on the mind of Sartaz Aziz would be to make a strong pitch for the Kashmir issue.

Sartaz Aziz is expected to start a statement blitzkrieg on the Kashmir issue. India will then match the Pakistani shenanigans. India will obviously be keeping a close tab on the statements emanating from the Pakistan. It will be equally important to see what kind of rhetoric Pakistan will be resorting to before the NSA-level talks.

Sartaz Aziz, Pakistan’s old fox who is well versed with the diplomatic and security environment in the India-Pakistan context and also the regional context, can be expected to come up with a long list of the Pakistani concerns vis a vis India. India’s Doval is no pushover and the entire politico-military establishment of Pakistan knows that.

The two NSAs can agree to disagree on anything and everything but their mission has to be fairly successful even then, if they agree to stay engaged and inject a few confidence building measures to prepare a solid base for the future engagement at different levels.

The Pakistan has an added responsibility to ensure that the India-Pakistan bilateral relations are not derailed any further, because it has to host the next SAARC summit.

By Premji