Summary: The cancelled trip of Mr Sartaz Aziz – the National Security Advisor of Pakistan – to meet his counterpart Mr Ajit Doval of India in Delhi, and the circumstances leading to it, should not be considered as isolated events. Seen in juxtaposition with an earlier cancellation of the scheduled meeting of the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan, the disappointment arising from the failed ‘Ufa initiative’ points towards a pattern. Underneath the roller-coaster ride that Indo-Pak relations routinely assume, there are some hard structural issues that must be tackled in order for specific initiatives like Ufa to succeed. The article suggests ‘principled negotiations’ – a method which identifies all the relevant stakeholders and their preferences, and encourages the actors to move beyond ‘positions’ to concrete ‘interests’ - in order to seek win-win solutions. The essay ends with some preliminary steps that might lead to the beginning of a serious and sustainable India-Pakistan dialogue.

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