Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met with his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary, on the sidelines of the multilateral Heart of Asia meet hosted by India. One of the most anticipated, especially after it was postponed after the Pathankot terror attack, the meet was drab and more of a show for the international community.
So while both the countries involved waited for a sign or at least a hint on when the next meet would be arranged, when would Pakistan allow the NIA to visit there to take the Pathankot investigations further, or when an appropriate action would be taken against Maulana Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed, all we got was a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs saying both the foreign secretaries exchanged ideas on taking the relationship forward and agreed to remain in touch. After what appeared to be an awkward meeting between two estranged exes, both the sides released statements saying the meet was just direct, one-to-one official meeting, with no signs of a future movement; not even a tentative date.
During the face-to-face, Jaishankar told Aizaz that Pakistan could not be in denial forever. He said Pakistan can't be in denial about the impact of terrorism on relations between the two countries. “Terrorist groups based in Pakistan targeting India must not be allowed to operate with impunity,” Jaishankar said. Meanwhile, as Pak refrained from mentioning Pathankot, a statement from the Pakistan High Commission said that Chaudhry did tell India about his concern over Indian intelligence agency RAWs' alleged involvement in Balochistan and Kashmir.
By stating their positions and letting them out into the public domain, it is clear that both the Indian and Pakistani establishments were keen to underscore their points to their respective domestic audiences, and to let the international community know what they were talking about. The officials maintain that this meet provided an occasion, after the Pathankot terror attack, to do some direct plain speaking with Pakistan. The ruling BJP will have a tough time in explaining it's position, and would have to explain why the Modi government agreed to proceed with the bilateral talks despite Pakistan not taking any visible action against the perpetrators of the terror attacks in Pathankot and Mumbai.
