Pakistan-India peace process must not fail: diplomats
By Our Correspondent
WASHINGTON, April 30: There has been ‘a degree of improvement’ in relations between India and Pakistan although the peace process has not yet reached a stage where it could become irreversible, according to senior Indian and Pakistani diplomats.
Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan says that there has been a realisation in both India and Pakistan that the entire region would benefit from peace between them.
Salman Haider, India’s former foreign secretary, agrees but says that “so long as the borders remain armed,” there would always be the risk that any unfortunate incident can reverse the peace process.
Despite this caution, both Mr Khan and Mr Haider appeared confident that the environment of hope created by the current peace process would produce positive results.
Mr Khan, who was briefing Pakistani journalists at the conclusion of the two-day Pakistan-US strategic talks, referred to a recent statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he described disputes like Siachen and Sir Creek, as “resolvable”.
Mr Haider, speaking at a gathering of Washington-based Pakistani journalists on Saturday night, also said that India and Pakistan should resolve issues like Siachen and Sir Creek if they wanted to make the peace process irreversible.
Mr Khan reviewed various steps Pakistan had taken so far to seek a resolution of the main dispute over Kashmir which has continued to prevent the two countries from reaching a durable peace.
“These very serious efforts to reach a settlement,” he said, “were not against Pakistan’s traditional demand referendum because they call for the resolution of the dispute according to the wishes of the people of Kashmir”. “And this is not different from calling for a referendum to seek their opinion,” he added.
Mr Haider, now a senior visiting fellow at the US Institute of Peace, acknowledged that what India sees as an infiltration of terrorists into Kashmir, was seen differently in Pakistan.
Similarly, he said, what some in Pakistan see as India’s ‘bullying’ tactics against its smaller neighbours, was seen differently in India. Both sides, he said, need to see the other’s point of view if they want to resolve their differences.
Mr Haider also discussed President Pervez Musharraf’s proposal for dividing Kashmir into various regions, but said that no Indian government would be able to do so. He referred to a recent statement by Prime Minister Singh saying that he did not have the mandate to re-draw the border. “But as he had suggested, he can make the border irrelevant.”
The Pakistani proposal for de-militarising some areas in Kashmir, he felt, would also be unacceptable to New Delhi but he said that India should consider ‘moving a few brigade here and there’ for returning normalcy to the disputed region.
In his briefing before Mr Haider’s meeting with Pakistani journalists, Mr Khan had urged India to move towards conflict resolution instead of simply “living” with the problem and trying to just “manage,” not resolve it. He said that negotiations with India had already achieved “a relative degree of normalcy between the two countries. Pakistan remains wedded to de-escalation and avoidance of conflict and wants a reduction in tension, which is not only Pakistan’s but India’s need as well, he said.
When a reporter pointed out that to date India had either ignored or rejected all major proposals for resolving the Kashmir dispute, the foreign secretary said: “But India and Pakistan are talking and that is the important thing.”
Mr Haider agreed. “Neither India nor Pakistan can afford to allow the current peace process to fail,” he said.
