2009 began in the backdrop of 26/11 and with the handing over of the 26/11 dossier to Pakistan and the subsequent denial by Pakistan of the evidence presented therein. India did not succumb to Pakistan’s doublespeak and kept the diplomatic stance despite clear efforts to provoke India . Lack of transparency in Pakistan ’s legal process and its internal political stability is delaying the process and this situation is likely to continue as it would try to divert the attention from the issue. History will judge India’s wisdom on the dossier diplomacy; as of now these seem to be the right steps vis-à-vis the terrorism emerging from Pakistan because the dossier diplomacy exposes the hitherto cosy relations between various state agencies of Pakistan regards terrorism.

The next big moment was the Sharm-el-Sheikh joint statement between India and Pakistan . The loosely drafted text allowed Pakistan to divert attention from India’s concerns to its political advantage and to the diplomatic embarrassment of India . The joint statement generated a lot of heat as Pakistan used the wordings of this declaration to embarrass India on the ethnic unrest in Balochistan. The Baloch reference in the declaration was intended to be the recognition of the issue but ended up being used as evidence of India ’s recognition of its involvement in the region and for justifying the human rights violations in the region by the Pakistani armed forces. While the domestic political debate in India about the Declaration was about the diplomatic miscalculations, it must be remembered that Pakistan has got into the habit of using the meetings with India to use it as Public Relations events in order to cry foul about India ’s intentions and actions.