India, Pakistan may meet for Indus pact talks to thaw frosty ties

[RISING SUN]

India, Pakistan may meet for Indus pact talks to thaw frosty ties
Hoping for rapprochement after a year of terror attacks and acrimony, India and Pakistan may convene a meeting of Permanent Indus Commission during the coming months after such talks under Indus Water Treaty (IWT) was suspended last September following terror strikes on the Army camp in Uri.
A meeting of the Commission is on the cards to discuss the critical issue of water sharing, hinted persons familiar with the development. According to Article VIII of the Indus Waters Treaty, the Commission must meet once a year, alternately in India and Pakistan. The last meeting was held in July 2016. The Permanent Indus Commission is a bilateral commission consisting of officials from India and Pakistan, created to implement and manage the goals and objectives and outlines of the Indus Waters Treaty. The commission maintains and exchanges data and co-operates between the two countries. The 1960 Indus Water Treaty was not abrogated even as the talks were suspended amid tensions following the Uri strikes. Earlier this month, a United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) report had blamed Pakistan for neglecting to resolve trans-border water issues and delayed presenting the cases of dispute with India to the Water Commission. But the report also claimed that the Indus Water Treaty has been an outstanding example of conflict resolution.
Meanwhile, Islamabad is pushing soft power diplomacy’ amid major changes in the Pak Foreign Office that may create grounds for Indo-Pak political engagement this year. A few Indian authors and commentators have been invited for the Lahore Literary Festival one of the premier cultural events of Pakistan being held between February 24 and 26.
This comes close on the heels of Indian participation at the Karachi Literature Festival earlier this month. Improvement in the political atmosphere may even see the two PMs meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kazakhstan on June 7-8. Both India and Pakistan are likely to be admitted as full members at this SCO Summit.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...-to-thaw-frosty-ties/articleshow/57214025.cms

 

[HinduFacist]

LOL...this line explains it all "According to Article VIII of the Indus Waters Treaty, the Commission must meet once a year, alternately in India and Pakistan. The last meeting was held in July 2016"

Indian will do the bare minimum to keep the IWT alive on paper and ensure its death n the ground.

As long as the meeting takes place , pakistan has no room to manoeuvre.

 

[RISING SUN]

India may hold maritime meet with Pakistan
India is all set to host a meeting of the Indian Coast Guard and Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) next month in a sign that while it may not soon formally start the comprehensive bilateral dialogue (CBD) process, it is not averse to talking to Islamabad on important issues.

The last round of talks between Coast Guard and PMSA on maritime security had taken place in July last year in Islamabad.

Official sources here told TOI that the two sides are currently finalising dates for talks through diplomatic channels and that the engagement is likely to take place anytime after April 15.

The visit by Coast Guard to Pakistan last year was the first by any Indian delegation to the neighbouring country after the Pathankot attack. It was seen as a small step to lend a semblance of normalcy to ties, one which could lead to a more substantive engagement later. The strife in Kashmir though, and later the Uri attack, made it impossible for India to engage Islamabad.

The visit to India by PMSA next month will also be the first by any Pakistan security delegation since the Uri attack. This follows India's move earlier this month to send a delegation to Pakistan to hold Indus Water Commission talks.

The government had defended its decision to go ahead with Indus engagement saying that it did not amount to talks between the 2 governments. MEA said last week that so long as India was party to the Indus Waters Treaty, it was under legal obligation to attend all "treaty-mandated meetings".

There have been other signs though that India, without diluting its rhetoric on cross-border terrorism, is warming up to Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif's peace overtures in the wake of former army chief Raheel Sharif's retirement. In the most recent such gesture, it allowed BJP MPs, Swapan Das Gupta and Meenakshi Lekhi, to attend a conference in Pakistan. The two were accompanied by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

After an official request from Islamabad, it had last month also released 33 Pakistani prisoners and fishermen. The government had then declared that it attached "highest importance" to addressing all humanitarian issues with Pakistan. It has also sought to promote people to people contact by getting the ICCR to sponsor participation of Indian authors in last month's Karachi Literature Festival.


As official sources here insisted, it is not possible for India to give in to Islamabad's demand that CBD be started until there's some tangible progress in Pathankot attack probe and also also Mumbai trial.


Modi last week wrote to Sharif saying that India wanted to have cordial ties with Pakistan in an atmosphere free of terror and violence. With both Modi and Sharif both likely to attend the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) summit in Astana in June, there's a possibility though that either of the two countries could propose a meeting between the PMs.


The Indian Coast Guard and PMSA signed an MoU in 2005 which envisaged cooperation between the two agencies through exchange of information on Exclusive Economic Zone violations, apprehended vessels, marine pollution, natural disasters and calamities.


The MoU also sought to combat smuggling, illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and piracy, and coordination in search and rescue and return sea passage. It also established a communication link between them in the form of a hotline which remains operational. The MoU was extended in 2016 for 5 more years.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...th-pakistan/articleshow/57845233.cms?from=mdr

 

[Qutb-ud-din Aybak]

LOL...this line explains it all "According to Article VIII of the Indus Waters Treaty, the Commission must meet once a year, alternately in India and Pakistan. The last meeting was held in July 2016"

Indian will do the bare minimum to keep the IWT alive on paper and ensure its death n the ground.

As long as the meeting takes place , pakistan has no room to manoeuvre.

but if India break the treaty and just want to keep it alive on papers than many other options are also given in treaty.
and one not in treaty has been saved for later used.