US expects India to talk to Pakistan

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ ‘The Modi government would chaff at the very idea of holding talks with Pakistan, facilitated by Washington and under close US monitoring, when the 2019 poll is sailing into view.’

‘But in politics and diplomacy, there may be moments when drinking from the chalice of poison is necessary,’ says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs in the US state department, is visiting India from April 3 to 6.

This is strictly not a ‘bilateral event’, but Ambassador Wells’ discussions with senior Indian government officials are expected to cover ‘regional and global issues’, according to the US state department announcement.

Presumably, Afghanistan will be top of the agenda of discussion. Ambassador Wells has emerged as the Trump administration’s key interlocutor on the Afghan problem. A career diplomat, low-key but very effective in the absence of turf rivalries, she has galvanised the search for a political process in Afghanistan in such a short period of time.

Ambassador Wells has succeeded in building up a good rapport with Pakistani officials who are in a position to make or mar her project. During her extraordinarily open-ended visit (for ‘several days’) to Pakistan last week, Ambassador Wells was received by army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.