UK fostering Indo-Pak Peace By M. Fazal Elahi
Responding to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s congratulating the newly-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, on taking the oath of office for his second term, the State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, on Wednesday, 6th March 2024, said the US wants India and Pakistan to have a “productive and peaceful relationship”. However, in the same breath, he categorically stated that the pace, scope, and character of any dialogue were a matter for the two neighbours to determine. What does this reflect? It cogently reflects that the US wouldn’t like to play a mediatory role in initiation of the dialogue that it wishes India and Pakistan to hold, to establish “productive and peaceful relationship”. One is compelled to ask, why the US does not want to play any role in bringing India and Pakistan to the negotiation table for the proposed dialogue. The only reason that comes to mind is the issue of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoJ&K) – an issue that has been and continues to be a bone of contention between the two regional nuclear powers.
It may be recalled that former US President Donald Trump in his first one-on-one meeting with former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan at the White House on 22nd July 2019 offered to mediate in the India-Pakistan conflict in Kashmir. Mr. Trump cogently said that he was making the offer after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested that he “mediate or arbitrate” in the 70-year-old territorial dispute between the two nations. This shows that the US, if it sincerely wants, can play a pivotal role in bringing India and Pakistan to the negotiating table and encourage them to negotiate and amicably resolve all bilateral issues, including the long-pending issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
The desire expressed by the US to see India and Pakistan have a “productive and peaceful relationship” is estimable. However, saying that the pace, scope, and character of any dialogue was a matter for the two neighbours to determine makes the sincerity of this desire questionable. If the US truly wants India and Pakistan to establish a “productive and peaceful relationship,” it should come forward and play a meaningful role in bringing the two nations to the negotiating table.
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It is known to the world that Pakistan has always been sincerely desirous of an amicable resolution of all outstanding issues between the two countries, including the long-pending issue of Indian occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. India, on the contrary, has been prepared to have a dialogue with Pakistan on all issues except the issue of occupied Kashmir. Pakistan is aware, India will never be serious about having a bilateral dialogue with it as long as it continues to list occupied Kashmir on top of its roster of issues to be discussed between the two countries. India should realise that a dialogue with it, sans the issue of occupied Kashmir, will never be acceptable to Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan will have to take into account this stark reality before contemplating going to the negotiating table to hammer out other bilateral issues. Any endeavour, from either side, to initiate a dialogue will, as in the past, prove to be an exercise in futility until India is serious about negotiating and resolving the long-outstanding Kashmir conflict.
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The UN, the US, and the majority of the world nations have always been asking the two nuclear neighbours — India and Pakistan — to get down to the negotiating table and hammer out all issues, including the critical issue of occupied Kashmir bilaterally. The UN and the world community should appreciate that India has obstinately and persistently been shunning bilateral negotiations particularly on the substantive issue of occupied Kashmir. Contrary to this, Pakistan, as known to the world, has been consistently offering India a dialogue on all issues, including the issue of occupied Kashmir.
India’s shying away from talks with Pakistan makes it abundantly clear that it is not prepared to resolve the long-outstanding Kashmir issue through bilateral negotiations. The world community must realise that a dialogue between India and Pakistan, though profoundly essential for the establishment of peace not only between the two nuclear neighbours but also the region, cannot take place until India is willing to discuss and resolve the issue of occupied Kashmir. And the critically perilous Kashmir dispute, the world should appreciate, can never be resolved through bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan. It will have to be resolved in accordance with the charters of the UN and the UN Security Council Resolution of 1948 on occupied Kashmir; the Resolution that cogently declares IoJ&K a disputed territory and grants the right to self-determination to the people of the occupied territory.
Source: https://www.nation.com.pk/26-Mar-2024/uk-fostering-indo-pak-peace