Internews/Islamabad
Surprisingly the governments of Pakistan and India are confusing the planned Track-II dialogue with back-channel contacts as adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz, on Wednesday, confirmed that Track-II dialogue he mentioned in his media briefing a day earlier was actually a plan for back-channel engagement.
Aziz had at a press conference said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had agreed to revive the Track-II dialogue on longstanding issues bedevilling the ties between the two countries, including the Kashmir dispute.
The adviser clarified that he used the phrase ‘Track-II’ instead of ‘back-channel’ because the two sides had in their meeting in Ufa (Russia) agreed on reviving Track-II. But, in essence it would be back-channel.
Back-channel diplomacy is about contending parties secretly negotiating their conflicts mostly in tandem with the front channel. In the back-channel negotiators have official approval. Whereas Track-II is a non-official and people-to-people effort for peace-making.
Defending the recourse to back-channel, Aziz said it was difficult to achieve progress on sensitive issues in the front channel that takes place in the public glare.
The adviser said that the back-channel will be used simultaneously with the front channel official engagement.
