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Agra summit runs into old wall -- Kashmir

Tarun Basu
Indo-Asian News Service

Kashmir continued to be a thorn in the flesh of India and Pakistan as their first summit in over two years got virtually deadlocked on Monday evening over whether to recognise it as the fundamental dispute.

As the talks between President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee got extended by several hours -- the two had already spoken for over four hours since Sunday morning -- Musharraf cancelled his visit to Ajmer where he and his wife Sehba were to have prayed at the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti.

Officials of both countries were wrestling to draft a joint declaration that was to be issued at the conclusion of Musharraf's three-day visit at the invitation of Vajpayee.

That the two sides had considerably hardened their positions by mid-afternoon was evident from the timing of a statement released by Vajpayee's office. The statement, made on Sunday at the start of the talks, enumerated the Indian perspective of Kashmir that any discussion on it had to "include the issue of cross-border terrorism".

Vajpayee had also gently warned that Pakistan should have no illusion that India lacked the "resolve, strength or stamina to continue resisting terrorism and violence".

The statement was released in apparent response to Musharraf's blunt speaking to Indian editors at a breakfast meeting where he categorically sought Indian acknowledgement that "the main issue confronting us is Kashmir".

"How can we move forward if we can't even agree on a single word -- that of calling Kashmir a dispute between the two countries?" Musharraf asked.

He said that by all definitions Kashmir was a dispute between the two countries and calling it by any other name like "problem" or "issue" would not help matters.

Musharraf first stated that he would like some kind of commitment from India at this summit on recognising Kashmir as a dispute, before moving on to possible solutions to it at subsequent summits.

Vajpayee has accepted Musharraf's invitation to visit Pakistan and that visit is likely to take place later in the year.

Musharraf said both countries should recognise each other's compulsions and reality. He made it clear that he was looking for an acceptable formulation containing "recognition by India of this reality" of the Kashmir dispute and that there are three parties to it -- India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.

"Let us arrive at a formulation whereby whatever that is mentioned in the joint declaration is something that can be addressed to in future as well," Musharraf stated.

He said he was not making progress on other issues conditional to recognition of the Kashmir dispute by India, but wanted them to be addressed "in tandem".

He said no leader in Pakistan could survive by talking about trade, confidence-building measures, and nuclear issues at the expense of Kashmir. "The two issues should go side by side," he said. "But you cannot discuss other issues and not touch Kashmir."

"If India expects me to ignore Kashmir, then I might as well buy back the Naherwali Haveli [his ancestral home in Delhi that he visited on Saturday] and live there," he quipped.

Musharraf paid tributes to Vajpayee for demonstrating courage and statesmanship in inviting him for the summit and said it was the first in a series of steps the two countries needed to take to resolve the outstanding issue of Kashmir.

The second step, he said, would be the recognition of Kashmir as a dispute between the countries.

The talks were initially characterised as "positive" by both sides, but by late Sunday night it was clear that the optimistic projections of the morning had been belied and the talks had hit a roadblock.

Indo-Asian News Service

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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