ISLAMABAD, 30 July 2004 — Pakistani and Indian officials concluded their first round of talks yesterday to settle a 20-year-old row over Indian plans to construct a dam in its part of Kashmir. Progress on settling a dispute over what Pakistan calls the Wullar Barrage and India the Tulbul Navigation Project may help set the tone for talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals to resolve the bigger issue of Kashmir’s future.
But for all Pakistan’s pushing for a timeline for a settlement on Kashmir — over which the old foes have fought two of their wars since independence in 1947 — analysts see a drawn-out process ahead, with both sides mum about their minimum requirements in any compromise.
“The progress on Kashmir will remain slow because both countries have expressed desire to resolve this issue, but their establishments have not yet moved away from their entrenched positions,” commented Talat Masood, a former general in Pakistan’s army. “It will take some time.”
In yesterday’s talks the two sides stated their respective positions but vowed to continue discussions. The Indian delegation led by V.P Duggal, secretary water resources, arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday to take part in the talks scheduled to end tomorrow. Secretary Water and Power Ashfaq Mehmood led the Pakistani side.
Over the next two weeks or so, Islamabad and New Delhi will play host to five more sessions on other points of conflict, such as the high altitude Siachen Glacier battlefield, trade and people-to-people contacts.
But first up is the water row, centered on Pakistan’s fears that India’s proposed plan to build a dam on the Jhelum River, on the edge of Wullar Lake, will choke off the flow of water by the time it reaches the plains of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
