
An exercise in futility?
Peace talks between India and Pakistan resume against a backdrop of tension and mistrust.
India and Pakistan are set to resume peace talks in the Indian capital on February 25. New Delhi made the offer earlier this month and Islamabad accepted.
India suspended the peace process after 10 gunmen attacked its commercial hub, Mumbai, in November 2008, killing 170 people. India blamed the banned Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the violence.
Pakistan denied any responsibility in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, but later admitted the Mumbai operation was partly planned on its soil, and the sole gunman captured alive was one of its citizens.
Foreign secretaries of both nations will resume negotiations under a mutual cloud of suspicion. Terrorism and the long-running dispute over Kashmir are likely to lead the agenda.
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The two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals met many times before, but most of those negotiations ended in failure. Is the resumption of dialogue futile given the recent tensions and mistrust between the two nations? What can be done to break the deadlock?
Joining us will be Pakistani political writer and strategist Shuja Nawaz. He has launched a project called Waging Peace in South Asia which is aimed at bringing India and Pakistan together on both political and economic fronts.
From New Delhi, we will have Salman Haidar, a former foreign secretary to the government of India. Haidar now directs the South Asian Political Initiative, a Ford Foundation-funded project to promote dialogue in South Asia through academic conferences.
You can join the conversation. Watch the show live on Wednesday, February 24, at 2030GMT, with repeats on Thursday at 0030GMT, 0530GMT and 1130GMT.