INDIA / PAKISTAN NEWS - Is India-Pakistan's cricket world cup semi-final match in Mohali today a beginning of a careful diplomatic scripting that opens up later this week? The cricket match, of course, seems to have changed, overnight, the scope and possibilities of dialogue.
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The national teams of Pakistan and India advanced to semifinal round of the WC tournament and they are meeting today in India in presence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani, who was invited as a surprise to watch the match.
What the two prime ministers will talk for hours while sitting together and watching the match? Can it be a breakthrough between the two conjoined twins?
One thing is clear from Dr. Singh's invitation that he has repeatedly tried to advance diplomacy with the neighbor. As seen, he had also invited Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, though he declined.
Analysts draw a mixed conclusion. Few says the invitation of Dr. Singh may push forward talks between the two countries while others say it is a political stunt which may risk the lower-level talks scheduled to start this week.
Strategic affairs analyst in the capital, Brahma Challaney, said: "It has caught everybody by surprise... In diplomacy, you have to do the preparatory work first if you want to have a result. This sounds like an impulsive move."
Earlier, the cricket diplomacy was tried twice. In 1987 Pakistan President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq attended the Indo-Pak match, but the relations soon deteriorated between the two countries.
In 2005, Dr. Singh invited the then Pak President Pervez Musharraf to watch together India-Pakistan cricket match in New Delhi, ushering in a period of secret back-channel talks that almost culminated in a breakthrough deal on Kashmir.
Whatever... Right or wrong this time.
Dr. Singh wrote in The Indian Express yesterday, "If the mood at Mohali turns out to be good, Dr. Singh and Gilani might help give the dialogue at the bureaucratic level a much needed boost."
India and Pakistan were founded in 1947. Since then, the two nuclear-power neighbors had fought three wars. The diplomatic progress of the two countries were shattered in 2008 after Pak mounted terror attacks killed more than 160 people in Mumbai.
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