India and Pakistan agreed to talks this week to resolve their differences and expressed confidence about settling their dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which brought them to the brink of war two years ago.
In a statement the foreign ministers of both countries said the talks would start next month and touch on all topics, including Kashmir.
The breakthrough came after an hour-long meeting on Monday between India’s Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Pakistan’s President, Pervez Musharraf, and was sealed by a telephone discussion between the two on Tuesday.
Musharraf attributed the success to Vajpayee’s ”vision” and ”statesmanship” and to the flexibility shown by both sides.
The key to the decision to hold the talks is that both sides have shifted from their positions to take account of each other’s concerns. India had said it would not hold talks until Pakistan had clamped down on armed militants who cross into India’s portion of Kashmir from the Pakistani side.
To assuage India’s worries, Musharraf said he would ”not permit any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used to support terrorism in any manner”. In return, Vajpayee said he was confident that a ”peaceful settlement” of the Kashmir issue was possible ”to the satisfaction of both sides”.
Raja Mohan of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, who was in Islamabad for the meeting, said: ”The Indian side has wanted Pakistan to put down the gun before talks started; the Pakistanis wanted a reference to a solution to Kashmir. Both have succeeded.”
Musharraf accepted that he was taking a personal risk in the search for peace, having escaped two assassination attempts in the past month. He warned that there might be a backlash by extremists and said he and Vajpayee had expressed concern for each other in their telephone call. ”I wished him very good health and and he wished me protection from …,” he said without completing the sentence.
The moves were condemned by Kashmiri separatist groups in Pakistan. The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, which seeks a Kashmir independent of both India and Pakistan, called the agreement Pakistan’s ”worst surrender”.
Since 1997 there have been three attempts to find a resolution to the Kashmir issue. All have failed.
It is understood that the discussions will revolve around eight points. These will include Kashmir, two maritime disputes, terrorism, trade and a solution to the conflict in the world’s highest war zone — the Siachen glacier, which is sandwiched between the two parts of Kashmir. — Â