Breaking protocol,Malik reaches out to Indian officials

Malik made an unusual gesture on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) when he walked up to the Indian delegation on his own as they met for a dinner for the SCO official delegates on Thursday night. Malik,it is learnt,took the initiative to come up to the Indian officials who rank lower than him in the order of protocol,and were accompanying External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. Pakistan’s Interior Minister surprised the Indian officials with the warmth he met them with. “He met us like a long-lost friend”,remarked a top official accompanying the External Affairs Minister.

He is understood to have told the Indian side that the two countries could not afford for their to be a situation where they were not talking to each other and that the two sides must move on,a point received extremely well by the Indian External Affairs Ministry officials.

Officials said that the fact that Malik — who is considered a hawk within the Pak establishment — chose to break the ice can be seen as a strong signal from Islamabad in reaching out to New Delhi. Malik is said to have told the Indian officials that he was looking forward to meeting Chidambaram in Islamabad and that there was an atmosphere of “transparent thinking” in Pakistan on its relations with India.