Depending on who is commenting, Sunday's visit by Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari to New Delhi and his talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were either a useful breakthrough or a damp squib. It is true that Zardari's political position at home is weak and he cannot deliver a great deal. It is also true that his visit to India was essentially a private one. Even so, to question the value of the talks or their importance as another block in building healthy relations between the ever mutually suspicious, nuclear-armed neighbors is wrong. Those that do so are, by default, on the side of suspicion and division. The more contact between the two, the better — and the point about the Delhi meeting is that there is forward movement. That is encouraging. Moreover, the meeting did lay some more of those building blocks. One outcome was an agreement to hold further talks at interior minister level in Pakistan, possibly as early as next week. Another was to give the nod to a new visa agreement for businessmen, making it easier for them to obtain one-year multiple-entry visas. The visa issue will be discussed and probably finalized at the interior ministers' meeting although there seems to be some question as to whether businessmen will be restricted to one city or be able to visit anywhere in India. Nonetheless, there is no point pretending that there is not still a mountain to climb by the two countries if relations are ever to be normal. Specifically India wants definitive proof that Pakistan is not supporting or giving harbor to terrorists such as those responsible for the Mumbai bombings. For its part, Pakistan wants the Kashmir issue resolved justly. It also wants to know that India is not backing separatists in Baluchistan as a means of destabilizing the country. These issues go to the heart of the mutual animosity. Kashmir is a festering wound that prevents sound relations. Similarly the lack of decisive action in Pakistan in regard to groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and its founder Hafiz Saeed ensures that Indian suspicions of Islamabad continue to dominate. India has made it abundantly clear that it will not set the Mumbai attacks aside in order to ensure better bilateral relations. Indeed, Manmohan Singh has said categorically that he will not take up an invitation to visit Islamabad until there is real progress on the Hafiz Saeed front. So when it comes down to it, either Pakistan acts on Lashkar-e-Taiba and its leader or the two countries continue to see each other as the enemy. VIP meetings may continue and provide signs of hope but it will be hope unfulfilled. There are many, not just in Pakistan, who say that India should make the first decisive move by agreeing to let Kashmir decide for itself what its future should be. But, realistically, there is no sign that this is going to happen while Delhi believes that there is no chance of such a vote taking place in a free and stable environment. But equally, does the Pakistan government have the freedom to make the first decisive move and crack down on the terrorists — who are, of course, as much a danger to it as to India? __
