Negotiation Archives - Page 2 of 6

Kandahar

In December 1999, hijackers took Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in Afghanistan. They demanded the release of 36 prisoners, the coffin of a militant and 200 million dollars. A team of Indian officials led by Ajit Doval of the Intelligence Bureau negotiated in Kandahar.

According to the statement of the External Affairs Minister to Parliament, the Crisis Management Group in Delhi received its instructions from the Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Security. The government rejected the first demands. In the end it released three prisoners, among them Masood Azhar, in exchange for about 160 hostages.

Thirty-Six Jets

On April 8, 2015, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar described the talks on the Rafale fighter as “discussions under way between the French company,” “our Ministry of Defence” and “the HAL which is involved in this.” The talks concerned 126 aircraft under a tender from 2007. Two days later in Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he had asked President François Hollande for 36 Rafales, “the ready-to-fly models.”

In May 2015 Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said: “I have saved the cost of 90 Rafales.”

Who Signs Off

In Indian defence purchases, the size of the contract decides who approves it. In 2016 the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses described the levels. The Defence Secretary could approve up to 300 crore rupees and the Defence Minister up to 500 crore. “All cases with negotiated cost of INR 500 to 1,000 crore require the approval of the Finance Minister.” Larger cases went to the Cabinet Committee on Security. The figures may have changed since.

Forty-One Years

On May 16, 1974, Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed the Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh. It was not carried out for decades. In 2011 the two governments added a protocol. In May 2015 Parliament passed the 100th Amendment to the Constitution to put the agreement into effect.

At midnight on July 31, 2015, the two countries exchanged their enclaves. India transferred 111 enclaves to Bangladesh and received 51.

No Gun to Our Head

On October 24, 2025, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal spoke at the Berlin Global Dialogue about India’s trade talks. “We do not do deals in a hurry and we do not do deals with deadlines or with a gun to our head,” he said, as ThePrint reported.

The Diwali Deadline

India and the United Kingdom opened talks on a free trade agreement in January 2022. On April 22, 2022, during a visit to India, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wanted the deal done by Diwali that year. On October 14, 2022, Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said: “We are no longer working to the Diwali deadline.”

The negotiations concluded on May 6, 2025. Piyush Goyal and the British business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, signed the agreement at Chequers on July 24, 2025. Dawn described “three years of stop-start negotiations.”

Eighty Rounds

In 1997 the government of India and the NSCN-IM, a Naga armed group, agreed a ceasefire. On August 3, 2015, in New Delhi, the two sides signed a Framework Agreement in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Tribune counted more than 80 rounds of talks over about 18 years.

By late 2020 there was still no final settlement. The group insisted on a separate Naga flag and constitution, and the government’s interlocutor, R.N. Ravi, accused it of a “procrastinating attitude.” In November 2020 the NSCN-IM answered: “Our patience should not be translated as weak and helpless.”

The Vocabulary of Patience

Jaldi ka kaam shaitan ka aur der ka kaam Rahman ka. Haste is the work of the devil, and delay is the work of the Merciful. The Rekhta dictionary explains that people say it when someone hurries, because work done in haste is more likely to go wrong.

Sabr ka phal meetha hota hai. The fruit of patience is sweet. Rekhta’s Hindi gloss: patience brings a good result.

Nine Years over the Indus

India and Pakistan began negotiating over the waters of the Indus basin in 1951. From 1952 the World Bank mediated. The Indus Waters Treaty was signed on September 19, 1960. The World Bank’s own archive speaks of “nine years” of talks in one place and of “over a decade of negotiations” in another.

Guarding Another’s Interests

Vaanikan seyuvaarkku vaanikam paenip piravum thamapoar seyin. Couplet 120 of the Thirukkural, the Tamil classic on ethics, is about traders. It stands in chapter 12, on rectitude. A translation based on G.U. Pope’s reads: “As thriving trader is the trader known, Who guards another’s interests as his own.”