Three things happening around the same time on Kashmir today sound quite reassuring. The ongoing India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary-level talks in Islamabad, UN chief Ban-Ki-Moon's statement underlining the need to arrive at a final settlement of the Kashmir dispute and the Chinese support to the India-Pakistan dialogue seem to create a congenial atmosphere for the ongoing dialogue process. When it comes to Thursday's discussions held between the two Foreign Seretaries of India and Pakistan, Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, the two sides are said to have discussed peace and security and also Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. On Friday the two sides are expected to take the engagement further discussing Kashmir and ways to promote friendly exchanges will take place here Friday. When it comes to CBMs on the LoC, ensuring that the hiccups in the cross-LoC trade are removed will generate a good deal of goodwill in Kashmir. If the two sides also move further to make use of currencies in the trade possible in contrast to the current barter trade will be a significant CBM. For ensuring longer-term wellbeing and peace on the LoC, taking steps towards demilitarisation of the line, demining and an eventual complete demilitarisation of the Siachen Glacier must be key goals of this engagement. All these Confidence Building Measures will contribute greatly in addressing the misgivings on both the sides and ultimately help in hammering out a feasible solution of the Kashmir issue. This moment also offers scope to appreciate the fact that fundamentally speaking, there is no substitute to an India-Pakistan bilateral understanding and a defined path towards the resolution of their outstanding issues. However, there are bound to be moments and issues where the two countries might require some degree of neutral facilitation or mediation. That is where neutral institutions like the UN may be called in to play their role. The two countries at the end of the day cannot deny the fact that the United Nations continues to recognise Kashmir as an outstanding dispute. In such a backdrop, Ban-Ki-Moon's statement to support India-Pakistan efforts - and his veiled offer of help - to resolve this issue has also been timely. The Chinese government's support to the ongoing India-Pakistan dialogue is important too, considering the country's regional clout and influence on both the countries. Undeniably, this country's support to an India-Pakistan engagement to resolve their outstanding issues is crucial. In view of the global and the regional geo-political climate, India and Pakistan must seize this moment and chart a time-bound roadmap to resolve their outstanding issues, particularly the dispute on Kashmir. Both the two countries need to translate the realisation into practice that the centre of the global economic and political activity is likely to shift to Asia in the coming decades. China, India and Pakistan are going to be important players in the changed global order. However, for playing more effective role in those changed circumstances, it is highly imperative that both India and Pakistan resolve their outstanding issues, particularly the issue of Kashmir. The denial of the two countries' formal membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a case in point. Some key members of the SCO recently have gone public saying that the reason India and Pakistan were not granted the membership of this influential organisation has something to do with their inability to resolve their issues of contention, particularly the Kashmir issue. The SCO does not want its members to come up into the group with a baggage of contentious issues. And it is not only about the SCO.  Both India and Pakistan are standing at a crucial juncture of their histories. Their march to progress will be impeded significantly if they failed to break ice this time round. It is time to seize the moment and take bold actions.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:00:00 IST