India-Pakistan are Ross-Rachel of diplomacy: What the international media made of Modi's Lahore visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘sudden’ decision to make a pitstop at Lahore airport to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday sent the media in India and abroad into a tizzy. While the mainstream American media hailed the brief stopover as a significant development in the relationship between the two South Asian neighbours, newspapers in Pakistan, like The Express Tribune said it was a “step towards normalising ties between the two neighbours which have fought three wars.” The Dawn, however, in this tongue-in-cheek article cited a social media post which termed India and Pakistan as “Ross and Rachel of international diplomacy.” “It’s an extremely welcome move and it shows that the baby steps promised at the Paris summit between the two Prime Ministers have transformed into a much bigger step, which holds big promise for both countries,” an analyst was quoted as saying in The Express Tribune. [caption id=“attachment_2562614” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image courtesy: AFP[/caption] Another Pakistani daily, The Nation in this piece said, “It is the last-minute-plan that did the trick. If the media and powerful anti-peace lobbies were fed the news of any meeting beforehand, they would have ruined it all by their obsession with reading between the lines.” The article criticised the Indian opposition Congress’ reaction to the PM’s sudden visit and said, “More than the Pakistani naysayers who are just consumed by the presence of the steel magnate Jindal at the occasion and the ego hurt by obliging with Modi’s sudden plan of sojourn in the land of pure, the vociferous reservations – so to say – of the Indian opposition party Congress have absolutely disappointed the aspirants of peaceful relations.” Pakistan media asserted that for relations to thaw between the two nations, “jingoism can take a back seat for a while and the policy of give-and-take through dialogue should guide us.” The Pakistan English-language media had only good things to say about Modi’s trip to Pakistan which coincided with Nawaz Sharif’s birthday. “This is the first time an Indian Prime Minister has visited Pakistan in the past decade, Modi not only visited the prime minister of Pakistan but also his family,” another daily said. The Wall Street Journal described Modi’s surprise move as “likely to add momentum to a tentative reconciliation process” between the nuclear-armed neighbours, while The Chicago Tribune noted it as “potential sign of thawing” relations. It is “the biggest surprise of all” of Modi’s diplomatic moves since he came to power on 26 May, 2014 for which he had invited leaders of the South Asian countries, the Time magazine wrote. “It’s the first trip to the country by an Indian head of state in a decade — and could be a sign of improving relations between the two neighbours,” the popular National Public Radio said. According to The Los Angeles Times, with his Lahore visit, Modi “breathed new life into a long troubled” relationship. The New York Times, which quite often has been critical of the Prime Minister, while underscoring the significance of Modi’s impromptu trip to Lahore said the Indian leader in the past has moved from one policy to the other and described it as “a diplomatic dance”. Quoting analysts, Al Jazeera reported that relations between the two countries were at a low and Modi’s visit was seen as a baby step towards improvements in ties. Saying that the meeting sent a signal to “hawkish” constituencies in both India and Pakistan,  The Khaleej Times said, “Equally, it also sends signals down the line to the Indian military and civilian bureaucracies that the NDA government’s Pakistan policy has embarked on a new and momentous course.”