This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 005447 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/13/2015 
TAGS: PTER PREL ENRG ETRD KDEM IN PK INDO PAK
SUBJECT: INDO-PAK RAPPROCHEMENT CONTINUES DESPITE TERROR 
SPIKE 
 
REF: A. NEW DELHI 5446 
 
     ¶B. NEW DELHI 5226 
     ¶C. NEW DELHI 4689 
     ¶D. NEW DELHI 4449 
     ¶E. NEW DELHI 3745 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Geoff Pyatt, for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary: In a July 14 meeting, MEA Joint Secretary 
Dilip Sinha reassured us that Indo-Pak rapprochement would 
continue despite indications Islamabad is ramping up 
cross-border infiltration and terrorism.  The Composite 
Dialogue round is half-way through but there has been no 
progress in the three most recent sessions.  Bad luck in 
Pakistan, in the form of rising food prices and a damaged 
Internet cable, have led to ad hoc progress on very specific 
trade issues.  Taking a cue from our forthcoming democracy 
initiative and the Secretary's democracy remarks in Cairo, 
Sinha asked if Musharraf would be held to the same standard. 
End Summary. 
 
Pakistan's Prime Export: Terror 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) Remarking on the recent spike in terrorist 
infiltration and attacks (Ref B), Sinha told us that the 
tempo was "back to business as usual."  For example, he said 
that one of the Babar Khalsa terrorists apprehended after the 
Delhi cinema bombings (Ref E) had spent time in Lahore.  He 
remained cautious regarding the Ayodhya attack, saying only 
that the police had not yet made any definite connections. 
Remarking on the upsurge in attacks in both India and 
Afghanistan (Ref A), he asked rhetorically, "If Musharraf is 
not in control, how was he able to quiet terrorism before the 
Afghan presidential election?" 
 
¶3.  (C) Bilateral relations can only normalize if the 
violence stops, Sinha continued.  The availability of 
advanced weapons and undetectable explosives has changed the 
entire atmosphere in India; in the 1980s the President and 
the PM could safely take evening strolls without security 
cordons, which is impossible today.  To PolCouns' question, 
Sinha offered in principle to renew his predecessor J/S AK 
Singh's practice of arranging intelligence-based briefings on 
cross-border terrorism trends (Ref D). 
 
Composite Dialogue Crawling Along 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) The Composite Dialogue will continue despite the 
increase in terrorism, Sinha told us. Three sets of talks are 
coming up -- on friendly exchanges (in late July), trade 
(early August), and terrorism/drug trafficking (mid-August) 
-- followed by the Foreign Secretaries' meeting in September. 
 Also, the GOI and GOP are locking in dates for a meeting of 
the private sector Joint Business Council to intensify 
bilateral trade that figured prominently in the April 18 
Joint Statement.  Without speculating on how useful these 
talks might be, he reported that the there was no progress at 
all in the three sets of talks he attended: 
 
-- On Siachen Glacier, Sinha "understood that it was a 
zero-sum game," and progress there would inevitably be slow 
at best. 
 
-- Sir Creek (May 28-29) "should have been easy," Sinha told 
us, but "Pakistan's attitude was unhelpful."  The sides had 
agreed on the land border based on the pillars that were 
surveyed in January, but Islamabad refused to delineate 
either the creek itself or the maritime boundary from the sea 
to the mouth of the creek. 
-- On Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project (June 28-29), 
the two sides again failed to move the issue forward, though 
that suited Islamabad's agenda of stalling the project itself. 
 
¶5.  (C) GOI Interlocutor on Kashmir NN Vohra separately 
confirmed that talks continue, but asserted that the Pakistan 
side is under instruction to commit to nothing while running 
out the clock.  He speculated this was perhaps so Musharraf 
could claim credit as a deal maker when he next meets Prime 
Minister Singh. 
 
Some Good Indo-Pak News 
----------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C) Sinha underlined that there was some recent positive 
movement between New Delhi and Islamabad, which came from two 
problems that Pakistan had recently experienced.  Rising food 
prices in Pakistan led the GOP to drop import duties and to 
authorize direct imports of five important food staples from 
India: potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic and wheat.  Also, 
after a cable fault knocked out Pakistan's sole Internet 
link, Islamabad inquired about running a fiber-optic cable 
from Lahore to Amritsar to connect with India's network.  The 
cable has since been repaired, but talks on connecting to 
India's network continue with both the Indian government 
operators and IT behemoth Reliance Industries.  Sinha was 
hopeful this Internet project would go ahead, despite the 
passing of the emergency requirement. 
 
¶7.  (C) Sinha also commented favorably on recent political 
developments in J&K.  The separatists' visit to Pakistan and 
Pakistani Kashmir (Ref C) went well -- "they did not follow 
ISI's script."  He was also cautiously upbeat on pro-Pakistan 
hardliner SAS Geelani being sidelined by Islamabad.  That 
said, he was frustrated by tight GOP limits on the number of 
travelers on the Kashmir bus, and noted that visas have also 
been restricted for some other categories of Indian visitors 
(the Hindustan Times's Manoj Joshi, for instance, was 
recently denied a visa because of offending articles). 
 
Promoting Democracy: Did You Forget About Musharraf? 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶8.  (C) Closing, Sinha remarked on the fate of democracy in 
Pakistan, observing that "dictators prefer local elections 
over national democracy," and that there were no signs that 
Musharraf would permit the return of Pakistan's three exiled 
political party leaders (Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, and 
Altaf Hussain).  "Pakistan seems exempt from the requirement 
that nations must embrace democracy to gain favor with the 
US," he lamented.  In light of our upcoming bilateral 
democracy initiative, Sinha expressed the hope that 
Washington will remember this element of its Pakistan policy. 
 
Comment: Peace Still the Flavor of the Season 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (C) Sinha's cautious optimism about the Indo-Pak peace 
process, despite the recent uptick in terrorism underlines 
that Delhi is staying the diplomatic course set by the PM and 
that the MEA remains measured in its assessments.  However, 
the frustration Sinha expressed about Pakistan's lack of 
movement towards democracy reflects a widening concern here 
that the GOI has still to find a sustainable formula for 
stabilizing its relationship with Pakistan. 
BLAKE