Daily Times

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, March 6, 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 was 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 the initiation of the dialogue that it wishes India and Pakistan to hold, to establish a “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 July 22, 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.

Not only India but the powers that be must also cogently understand that war is no solution to anyone’s problems.

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.

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, that 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 realize 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.

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 realize 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.

Wouldn’t one be justified to ask the UN, the US and the other world powers to exercise their influence on India, as it did in the case of East Timor and South Sudan? With unequivocal support from the United Nations and equally strong support from the world powers, East Timor gained independence from Indonesia in 1999 and South Sudan gained independence from the Republic of Sudan in 2011. The names of these two countries emerged on the map of the world, as independent states, in the not-too-distant past. The UN, the US and the other world powers should prevail over India and ask it to implement the UN Security Council Resolution vis-à-vis occupied Kashmir in letter and spirit. They must press India to hold a plebiscite in IoJ&K, under the supervision of the UN, forthwith and let the people of occupied Kashmir decide their own fate. Aspirations of the US, the UN and the world to see a “productive and peaceful relationship” between India and Pakistan could be realized only when the issue of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir stands resolved.

It is high time the two recognized nuclear powers of the region, India and Pakistan, had mended their fences, restored their strained bilateral relations, and made determined efforts to hammer out all outstanding issues, including the long-drawn-out Jammu and Kashmir conflict, with unparalleled sincerity and a sense of utmost urgency. However, in doing so, both sides must ensure that the talks held are all-encompassing and result-oriented. Not only India but the powers that be must also cogently understand that war is no solution to problems, and enduring peace and prosperity cannot be brought to the people of the subcontinent in particular, and the region in general, unless India and Pakistan come to terms with each other and attempt to resolve all its issues amicably.

The writer is a columnist and analyst based in Islamabad.