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Kathmandu Saturday July 14, 2001 Ashadh 30, 2058.
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Summit
for peace
India and Pakistan - which have fought three
wars since independence including two over Kashmir - will hold three day bilateral talks
on the fate of that disputed state in the Taj Mahal city of Agra starting tomorrow. New
Delhi has already assured General Musharraf a red carpet welcome. Let us hope that the
Agra summit will pave the way for the 11th SAARC summit due to be held in Kathmandu. That
SAARC summit has been on hold ever since India refused to attend, calling into question
the legitimacy of the new military regime in Pakistan. India even tried to suspend
Pakistan from Commonwealth membership. India also raised its voice at a number of
international fora against the coup in Pakistan. All that acrimony has apparently been
forgotten, or at least shelved for the moment, while the Indian capital spruces up for the
Musharraf visit. It will be premature however to expect any breakthrough from the Agra
talks. The two opposing positions are too deeply entrenched, and it would be political
suicide for either side to be seen to be compromising on Kashmir. Besides, almost
everything that can be said about that intractable issue has already been said on one
occasion or other and people have simply run out of ideas. The only realistic hope now is
the two neighbours will come to realise that there are more important things under the sun
than Kashmir alone and that in the fullness of time those other things will take
precedence over what is by now a sterile and futile deadlock. The realisation is also
hopefully beginning to dawn on both countries that the international community has now
left them to their devices, to resolve their mutual difficulties how they will. And yet
resolve it they must if their nuclear baggage is not to continue weighing down on them
both and on the region as a whole.
Breakthrough or not, the Agra summit should at
least defuse tensions between the two countries that have been boiling up since both
countries conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998. South Asia has turned into a
most dangerous place following the nuclear tests. At the Lahore summit, both countries had
agreed to avoid the use of nuclear weapons against each another in case of war. However,
that was an agreement reached with the government led by Nawaz Sharif. Agra is the first
summit between the two countries since General Musharraf ousted Nawaz Sharif in October
1998. The consequent worsening of relations between India and Pakistan has cost more in
terms of the proposed free trade area within SAARC than Kashmir. Interestingly, any
resolution of the Kashmir dispute, however unlikely in the forseeable future, can do more
for regional harmony and cooperation than SAARC. Be that as it may, the Agra summit must
at least provide some hope for the future of SAARC and also be a step closer to putting to
rest the 53 year old enmity between the two arch rivals- India and Pakistan.
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