Floods in Pakistan, the pulls and pressures of India-Pakistan disaster diplomacy.

As a flood of Biblical proportions ravaged Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences and hoped for “an early restoration of normalcy.” “It breaks my heart to see the devastation caused by the floods in Pakistan.” “We express our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, the injured, and all those affected by this natural calamity, and we hope for a prompt return to normalcy,” Modi said in a tweet on August 29.

This is the Prime Minister’s only statement on the floods that continue to wreak havoc across Pakistan. According to official figures released on Thursday, 1,355 people have been killed since June 14, and 33 million of the country’s 220 million people have been affected. More than 3,500 people have been injured, and wheat and fuel are in short supply. According to preliminary estimates, a third of the country’s cultivated land — 7 million hectares out of 22 million — has been inundated. Approximately 2 million homes will have to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Many people were surprised by the Prime Minister’s statement last month, given the steady deterioration of India’s relationship with Pakistan over the previous eight years since Modi took office.

Modi famously began his tenure by inviting Pakistan’s then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the inauguration ceremony in May 2014. Sharif had traveled to India with the leaders of the other SAARC countries.

Modi’s gesture and the meeting between the two Prime Ministers held out the prospect of a fresh start for the bilateral relationship, which had suffered a severe setback following the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008.