Lights, camera, inaction!

ASKED about his strategy towards Pakistan, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, said that he wanted “friendship: I keep trying to find new ways all the time.” After telling The Economist so, in May, it briefly looked as if the tetchy relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours would improve. Mr Modi agreed with his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, to visit Pakistan next year for a regional forum. And the two leaders said their national-security advisers would meet in Delhi on August 24th.

It would have been the first proper conversation since Mr Modi scrapped talks between senior diplomats, on a pretext, a year ago. But it flopped before it began. First Pakistan’s generals were furious that Mr Sharif agreed that the agenda would include terrorism (India’s top concern) but not the disputed region of Kashmir (the generals’). Then gunfire was exchanged over the “line of control” in Kashmir. Adding to the ugly mood were terrorist attacks in northern India, which India blamed on Pakistan. Both sides gave up on the security talks, though they are badly needed.