The air between India and Pakistan is turning slightly warmer in
the last two months of the year 2006 as senior officials from the
two sides began to visit each other again, shaking hands and
smiling.
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will visit
Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, on Jan. 13 while his Pakistan
counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri had already been in Delhi in
late November.
Although Kasuri's visit was a private one, the two foreign
ministers did meet each other for an informal lunch.
Both sides agreed that Pakistan-India relations are very
important and that they need to develop a level of trust, Kasuri
told the media after the lunch.
And during his visit to Pakistan, Mukherjee will invite
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Kasuri for the 14th South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit,
scheduled to be held in India next year.
These shaking hands had not been seen for about four months
since India's financial capital Mumbai suffered terrorist attacks
in July.
Twist in bilateral ties
Being rivals and close neighbors for about sixty years, the
relations between India and Pakistan never went in a straight
forward way. There was no exception in 2006.
In the first half of the year no one expected huge breakthrough
but the two countries seemed to move their peace process and
bilateral talks in a stable manner.
Shivshankar Menon, then Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan,
was quoted in April this year as saying that the third round of the
Composite Dialogue talks may result in "tangible" progress on some
key issues.
It was important that the dialogue should be sustainable in the
long run, he said.
In 2005-06 fiscal year ending in March, the bilateral trade
between India and Pakistan topped US$1 billion, up about US$400
million over the previous year, thanks to the South Asian Free
Trade Area Agreement and opening of train and bus services across
the border. The bilateral trade used to be US$161 million around
five years ago.
Several efforts to ease the relations last year had remained
till this year. The bus service resumed between Srinagar, summer
capital of India-controlled Kashmir, and Muzafarabad, capital of
the Pakistan-controlled side, after the deadly earthquake while a
new bus route started between Amritsar of India and Nankana of
Pakistan early this year.
And the two sides continued joint humanitarian relief to
earthquake victims in the troubled Kashmir region opening five
check points along the Line of Control.
But the wind suddenly changed its direction when the commute
train system in Mumbai was hit by serial blasts on July 11, which
killed about 180 people.
Pakistan remained an easy target after terrorist attacks in
India. This time Indian police, intelligence agency and media
posted serious charges against the neighboring country. Besides
accusing the Pakistani government of not taking effective measures
against the terrorist groups based there, they moved forward to say
that Pakistani intelligence agencies were behind the terrorist
attacks in Mumbai.
The Indian government suspended the composite dialogue and
canceled several bilateral meetings while Pakistan reiterated the
charges were baseless.
Wind blows back again
A joint anti-terror mechanism relieved the bilateral relations
from the coldness though many people were skeptical about how it
would work.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf showed their sincerity to push forward the peace
process by promoting the idea when they met in the sideline of Non-
Aligned Summit in Cuban capital Havana in September, two months
after the Mumbai blasts.
And in mid November the foreign secretaries from the two sides
met in Delhi. As a follow-up for the policy, the two countries
agreed to set up a 3-member anti-terror mechanism, which will
consider measures to fight against terrorism including regular and
timely sharing of information.
At the meeting they also talked about Kashmir issue and agreed
to fully implement measures to enhance interaction and cooperation
across the "Line of Control" including an early start of truck
service for trade.
The peace process seemed back to its track as another foreign
secretary level meeting was scheduled in February next year in
Islamabad for next round of composite dialogue.
Kashmir VS terrorism
No matter how the bilateral ties moved back and forth, it seemed
that India and Pakistan just could not go around the controversial
issues of Kashmir and terrorism across the Line of Control.
Musharraf's recent interview with India's NDTV made Indian
public buzz again.
The TV news quoted him as saying that Pakistan will give up the
UN resolutions and its long-standing demand for a plebiscite in the
region of Kashmir if India accepts the four-point solution it has
raised.
As a response to the report, Pakistan foreign office
spokesperson Tasnim Aslam denied any change in the country's
position on the issue but she said, "Essentially, what he (
Musharraf) said was that Pakistan was ready to show flexibility
provided India did the same."
This was not the first time that Pakistan talked about the
solution for the Kashmir issue. But as usual Indian government
answered with little response.
Or it would respond this way.
According to Indo-Asian News Service, Indian Defense Minister A.
K. Antony said, "This is not a new statement (by Musharraf). I have
heard many such statements from him in the past so many years.
Instead of statements, Pakistan should do some action, stop
terrorism."
(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2006)
