NEW DELHI, 27 September 2004 — Talks between the leaders of India and Pakistan have given fresh impetus to a peace process between the two nations but there will be no swift solution to their decades-old Kashmir dispute, analysts said yesterday.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday called his first face-to-face talks with Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in New York “historic” while the Pakistani leader termed the discussions “a major breakthrough.”
Indian and Pakistani analysts said the two leaders in their hourlong meeting Friday gave the peace dialogue formally launched in January to end nearly six decades of enmity between the nuclear powers new momentum but added it would take a long time to achieve resolution of their differences. “The problems are very complex, there’s no shortcut. We’ll have many ‘historic’ meetings, but there’s a positive momentum coming out of these talks,” said Kalim Bahadur, who teaches South Asian studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
In a joint statement, the leaders reiterated a commitment to continuing bilateral dialogue to restore “normalcy and cooperation” between India and Pakistan which have fought three wars over disputed Kashmir and came to the brink of a fourth in 2002.
They resolved to look at avenues to peacefully settle the row over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which both sides hold in part but claim in full, in a “sincere spirit and purposeful manner.” The statement avoided direct mention of sensitive subjects including India’s demands that Pakistan cut off its alleged support for “terrorists” fighting Indian rule in Kashmir where a deadly separatist revolt has raged since 1989.
Concern had been mounting in recent weeks about the fate of the peace process initiated last year by former Hindu nationalist Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee as India and Pakistan had started reverting to entrenched stands on Kashmir. Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party coalition lost power last May in general elections to a leftist-backed coalition led by the Congress Party.
Analysts found positive the fact Musharraf and Singh appeared to have struck a good rapport in their talks held on the fringes of a UN meeting.
Singh and Musharraf seemed to have been able “to break the ice well,” said India’s former army chief Ved Prakash Malik.
“They seem to have developed confidence in each other and in each other’s sincerity.” Still, he said, “There’s a long way to go... a lot more substantial work to be done.
Former Pakistani diplomat Kamal Matinuddin said Singh and Musharraf had made “conciliatory statements” which augured well for peace in South Asia.
“Musharraf, who used to say ‘Kashmir first, ‘did not reiterate it is the core issue nor did he talk about Indian’ atrocities in Kashmir.
“Manmohan Singh also toned down India’s insistence on ‘cross-border terrorism.’ So all these are all useful signs. We should all support it.” But he also said it was “too early” to say Kashmir would be resolved soon. “We can expect progress on Kashmir will be made in a slow and careful manner.”
However, another Pakistani commentator, Anwar Mansuri, said, “the agreement between the two countries to explore all options shows they are sincerely committed to resolve their disputes through dialogue.”
“I am quite sure now things will move.”
Pakistani daily newspaper, The News, said “both the countries have been cautious not to repeat their hard, old stances,” providing hope “the leadership of the two countries could bring our region out of the morass in which its people have been entrenched for the last 57 years.”
