NEW DELHI, 2 December 2003 — India and Pakistan agreed yesterday to restore airline overflight and landing rights by Jan. 1. The agreement — reached during talks between officials of the two countries meeting here — was announced in a joint statement.
The agreement came six days after the nuclear-armed neighbors began a cease-fire in the disputed Kashmir region in a fresh bid to calm turbulent relations, and is the latest in a series of steps, most of them largely symbolic, by the countries this year.
“The talks have been successful,” India’s director-general of civil aviation, Satendra Singh, confirmed after the meeting. “We have agreed to resume both the overflight and direct flights from Jan. 1, 2004.”
If the flights are restored by the new year, it will be just in time for a South Asian nations summit in Pakistan that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said he will attend.
Before air links were cut in January 2002, Pakistan International Airlines flew from Lahore to India’s capital, New Delhi, and Indian Airlines flew from Bombay to Pakistan’s commercial hub, Karachi. Both countries’ carriers could fly over the other’s territory to other destinations.
Hopes of a breakthrough at the New Delhi talks had brightened after Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Sunday said his country was ready to allow Indian carriers to fly over Pakistani airspace.
“When the smallest of things happen (between the rival countries), both cut links, whether it is severance of visa, or air or bus links,” said Teesta Setalvad, head of Communalism Combat, a civil group involved with the India-Pakistan peace process. “This should not happen and people-to-people contact should not be stopped under any circumstance,” he said.
Flights from India to Europe and Central Asia currently have to take a two-hour detour over the Arabian Peninsula because they cannot pass through Pakistani airspace. India’s ban on Pakistani overflights makes long detours necessary on flights to Nepal and China.
The resumption of air links “is great news because it will facilitate trade between the two countries,” said Muhammad Saeed Shafique, senior vice president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the main representative body of Pakistani businessmen. He said India would be a major market for Pakistani goods if formal trade was made easier.
Pakistan’s shares surged on the news, posting a new record rise in a single day, dealers said. The Karachi Stock Exchange 100-share index closed up 194.78 points, or 4.8 percent, at 4263.07 points. The market surpassed its previous single day session increase of 182.47 points, set on Sept 18.
“This helps us, helps industry. It’s a feel-good factor for the region,” said Kishore Biyani, managing director of Bombay-based Pantaloons, one of India’s leading garment makers.
The agreements are another step in the gradual thaw in relations between the two nations, which reached the brink of war last year after a December 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament. Since April, when Vajpayee called for a resumption of dialogue to resolve their differences, the two countries have restored a bus link, posted new ambassadors, and last week began a cease-fire along their shared frontier.
