INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif have exchanged pleasantries in Astana, Kazakhstan. That they did this at a time when their troops are exchanging fire almost on a daily basis should reassure all those who are worried about the latest rhetorical hostility between the two countries stumbling into a nuclear confrontation. Modi and Sharif met in the capital of Kazakhstan, on Thursday, ahead of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). As yet, there is no indication of an immediate return to normalcy in ties or a resumption of peace talks. The point not to be missed here is that the two leaders have not come across each other since December 2015. A lot of things, most of them outrageous, have happened during the last 17 months. Relations were going through some very dark days even before the arrest (or kidnapping) by Pakistan of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian spy (or businessman). Last year was particularly bad, as it started with militants, supposedly from Pakistan, storming the Pathankot airbase in Indian Punjab and killing seven security personnel. This dampened the hopes raised by a visit to Lahore by Modi on the occasion of Sharif's birthday on Dec. 25, 2015. Earlier, there was a high-level visit by an Indian delegation led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Islamabad in which the two countries agreed to revive the peace process. In September 2016, militants assaulted an Indian Army camp in Uri and killed 19 soldiers. India retaliated by staging "surgical strikes" on what it described as "terror launch pads" in Kashmir under Pakistani control. In late November, another terror attack took place at an army camp in Kashmir's Nagrota in which seven soldiers were killed, leading to further strains in ties. Even without the death sentence to Jhadav, now stayed at the intervention of the International Court of Justice (ICC), a war-like situation on the Line of Control (LoC) dividing the two Kashmirs was causing much concern to all South Asia watchers. Six militants were killed by the Indian Army in Uri on Friday. India says they were trying to infiltrate into the Kashmir under its control. This was not how things were supposed to develop under Modi's stewardship. Even though he had a record, in opposition, of ridiculing any politician who made overtures to Pakistan, he invited Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony, thereby indicating he was departing from his Bharatiya Janata Party's habit of demonizing those who call for good relations with Pakistan. There were other friendly gestures too. But some kind of terrorist attack on India always follows any India-Pakistan engagement. This means there are people, on both sides of the border, who are determined to derail the peace process. A sustained dialogue is the only fitting answer to such people and forces. There are precedents for this. In 1998, Indian and Pakistani representatives worked collaboratively on nuclear safety issues within the Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training in Nuclear Science and Technology in Asia and the Pacific (RCA) framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This was at a time when animosities were on the rise because of reciprocal nuclear weapons tests. Next year, both countries agreed to pursue a list of confidence-building measures, which included steps aimed at nuclear risk reduction. While the two countries have tried to avoid anything which would trigger a nuclear response, they have not been equally careful in devising arrangements — such as hotlines, people-to-people exchanges, and prior notifications of military exercises — that help promote good neighborly relations. It is this failure which keeps tension high and leads to irresponsible talk, in both countries, of a limited war to teach the other a lesson. But the one lesson we learn from history is that limited war does not stay limited, especially when the antagonists share a sensitive, fragile and overly militarized border.
