The Paris Effect: Sushma Swaraj travels to Pakistan today, will meet Nawaz Sharif and Sartaj Aziz

In one line: India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj will meet Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad. When? Starting 8 December, 2015. Why is it important? Because India and Pakistan have been trading barbs, the thaw has come at the “highest levels” What’s Paris got to do with it? When world leaders were on ‘global’ best behavior, far away from local troubles, Sharif and Modi shook hands. What’s Bangkok got to do with it? Four top ranking India PMO officials were at the meeting between India - Pak NSAs in Thai capital. Opposition reaction: “Agenda has been expanded, Parliament has not been informed, this is disrespect” – Congress. – In a huge step forward from the sharp punches traded in August this year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will travel to Islamabad on Tuesday for a two-day visit during which she will hold talks with her counterpart in Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz and also meet Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In August, the NSA talks in Delhi were called off over differences about the Pakistani delegation meeting Hurriyat leaders and confining the talks to the issue of terrorism. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted on Monday.

Swaraj’s visit comes two days after talks between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan on Sunday in Bangkok, where they discussed terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir and a range of key bilateral issues apart from agreeing to carry forward a “constructive” engagement. [caption id=“attachment_2481932” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. AFP[/caption] Swaraj will also meet Sharif’s adviser on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz on the sidelines of the ‘Heart of Asia’ regional conference in Afghanistan on Wednesday. “This is probably one of the most intense high-level engagements in a 10-day period in the relations between India and Pakistan,” sources told The Indian Express. Swaraj’s visit comes three years after former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna travelled to Islamabad in 2012 when the countries had inked the visa liberalisation pact. During her visit, Swaraj will be accompanied by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who was also present during the four-hour-long meeting between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Janjua in the Thai capital. Given that four officials linked to the PMO — NSA Ajit Doval, the Prime Minister’s special envoy on counter-terrorism Asif Ibrahim, joint secretary (PMO) Vinay Kwatra and his predecessor Jawed Ashraf — were at the Bangkok meeting, the Indo-Pak thaw has clearly been thought through at the highest levels of government.

The joint statement which came after the meeting of NSA’s said the talks were held pursuant to a meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the climate meet in Paris, rejecting the version given by the Indian side then that it was a mere “exchange of courtesies” although Sharif had told Pakistani media that he had a “good meeting” and “doors of dialogue should open”. Before Paris, Modi and Sharif had held a bilateral meeting in Russian city of Ufa where they decided that their NSA’s would meet to discuss all “terror-related” issues. However, Pakistan had called-off Aziz’s visit after New Delhi had made it clear that he would not be allowed to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders in the Indian capital. About 10 days ago, the Ministry of External Affairs recommended a “Cabinet minister’s” presence at the Heart of Asia conference because it felt that India should be represented at the political level during the discussions on Afghanistan, a key neighbor, according to South Block sources. A decision was taken at the “highest levels” to break the logjam. The Congress said the government had made a “fundamental departure” in its position on engagement with Pakistan and of “disrespecting” Parliament. Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma said the Opposition had expected the government to inform the House about the talks held between PMs Narendra Modi and Sharif in Paris recently. “We did expect that the PM would take Parliament and the leaders of the opposition into confidence about the direction and the roadmap that the government had in mind. Yesterday, the national security advisers of the two countries met. We have no objection to that, but they were accompanied by the foreign secretaries. That is why I used the words ‘fundamental departure’,” Sharma said. “The government had said that the July 26 Ufa statement between the two prime ministers, from the Indian perspective, meant that an understanding was reached only to discuss the issue of terrorism, which was contested by Pakistan, and the NSA-level talks were called off. Now, the very fact that the foreign secretaries have accompanied means that the scope and the agenda has been expanded… This is disrespect to Parliament — that Parliament is not informed as to what developments are taking place.” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Swaraj would respond on 10 December when she’s back from Pakistan. With PTI inputs