Islamabad: An easing of tension between New Delhi and Islamabad should help US-led efforts to stabilise Afghanistan though no one is expecting any quick breakthrough between the nuclear-armed rivals.
India has proposed the first high-level bilateral talks since it suspended a peace process with Pakistan after the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in November 2008.
"A lot of people in the US believe that peace in Afghanistan runs through Kashmir, so it's very important for the US and the whole international community to see that India and Pakistan are talking," said Pakistani analyst Ershad Mahmoud.
India's offer of talks comes after global powers endorsed an Afghan plan at a conference in London late last month to seek reconciliation with the Taliban in which Pakistan is expected to play a major role, largely in nudging the Taliban to talk. Underlining its determination to keep India out of any Afghan peace process, Pakistan managed at the London talks to shoot down a proposal to set up a regional council on Afghanistan, including India.
A direct Indian security role in Afghanistan represented a ‘red line' for Pakistan, the international security company Stratfor said in a recent paper.
But both Indian and Pakistani analysts said, given the deep suspicion on both sides, there was unlikely to be quick progress on main disagreements such as Kashmir and the sharing of water from rivers flowing out of the Himalayas.
"I doubt there will be any tangible progress on any of the contentious issues in the next few months," said Tanveer Ahmad Khan, head of Pakistan's Institute of Strategic Studies.
"I do not see anything coming out of these talks unless there is some change in intent ... that could change the ground situation," said Ajai Sahni, chief of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi.
