ISLAMABAD, 18 February 2004 — India and Pakistan have agreed on a timetable for future peace talks that both sides hope will end decades of bitter enmity and mistrust. They struck the deal at a mountain retreat not far from Kashmir, the disputed territory at the heart of their feud.
The breakthrough signaled optimism that the prospect for change is realistic.
“Things are moving in a positive direction,” India’s Foreign Secretary Shashank said yesterday after arriving in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
The agreement, announced in a Pakistan Foreign Ministry statement, was set to be finalized today during a meeting between Shashank and his Pakistani counterpart, Riaz Khokhar.
After years of sputtering efforts to end a conflict that has raged for more than half a century, diplomats are hopeful that the moment has arrived for progress.
“A broad understanding was reached on the modalities and the timeframe,” the Pakistani statement said.
Neither side would reveal the specifics of the timetable. However, India and Pakistan are expected to set up eight groups to tackle the decades-old Kashmir dispute, build confidence and deal with issues such as nuclear arms, terrorism, drugs and trade. The agenda was first agreed to in 1997, but failed to make headway.
Diplomats close to the closed-door talks also said that technical-level discussions about a bus service in divided Kashmir — and another bus and train route from Pakistan’s Sindh province — would take place next month.
