Rob Crilly: Talking through the fear and loathing

ASK Pakistani farmers who is to blame for water shortages, or security analysts which nation is trying to gain influence in Afghanistan, or whose secret service is responsible for suicide attacks and there is only ever one answer: India.

Its billion-plus population is blamed for diverting rivers for irrigation or to feed power stations. Its diplomats are viewed with suspicion as they establish consulates on Afghan soil, a place considered Pakistan's backyard. And its secretive Research and Analysis Wing is supposedly the hidden hand behind every bombing.

In a country where inventing and circulating conspiracy theories is considered a national pastime, everyone loves the chance to bash India.

So too on the other side of the border, where the media revel in the latest al-Qaeda attack that can be traced back to Pakistan.

Ever since partition a mix of fear, loathing and suspicion has characterised relations between the two powers. Throw in nuclear weapons and the result is a combustible rivalry with the potential to suck in half the world's population.

So if yesterday's talks between the two countries' foreign ministers fell rather short of a breakthrough, then it's worth celebrating the fact they took place at all.

It was the first meeting between the two men since the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, which killed 166 people. When it emerged the terrorists had set out from Pakistan, a four-year peace process was suspended and relations between the two countries went into deep freeze.

SM Krishna of India and Shah Mehmood Qureshi of Pakistan declared yesterday's talks "useful" and full of "frank" discussion. There will be another round of talks in New Delhi. And they both agreed that terrorism was a bad thing.

But on the crucial issues that have led the countries to war three times there was nothing.

Both have axes to grind. For Pakistan, resolving the issue of what it calls "Indian-held Kashmir" is central to any warming of relations. It also wants to see progress in disputes over rivers that rise in India, before crossing the border and joining the Indus.

And Islamabad wants to know New Delhi does not have sinister designs in Afghanistan.

For India though, the main issue is Pakistan's continuing sponsorship of terrorism. The run-up to yesterday's meeting saw fresh allegations that Pakistani security officials were heavily involved in the terror attacks on Mumbai.

In an interview with Indian newspapers, the country's home secretary, GK Pillai, said the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency orchestrated the attacks. He said the full extent of the ISI's role had become clear through recent questioning of David Headley, a suspect under arrest in the United States.

Headley, the US-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and an American woman, was arrested in Chicago last year and has pleaded guilty to scouting the sites in Mumbai that were targeted by the militants.

It was the strongest accusation yet levelled against Pakistan, and it set off a wave of anger in India.

All the disputes over Kashmir, their common border, fishermen imprisoned for straying into each other's waters appear to have been forgotten for the time being while India kept talks focused on Mumbai.

Diplomacy takes time. And when there is such long-standing hostility and mutual suspicion, it needs non-announcements like yesterday's to give the appearance of momentum when there is none.

But there will be another meeting. And it will take place in New Delhi, giving Pakistani journalists a chance to see the real India, just as their counterparts had in Pakistan this week.

•Rob Crilly reports from Pakistan for The Scotsman.