India, Pakistan agree on 13 proposals

Small but significant incremental steps that take forward relations between India and Pakistan were contained in the formal joint statement made on Wednesday after the meeting of the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan, K Natwar Singh and Khurshid M Kasuri.

On the contentious issue of Kashmir, no timeframe was spelt out and merely the resolve restated, to continue talks. On other issues, there was a little movement.

Expert level meetings on conventional and nuclear confidence-building measures including a draft agreement on advance notification of missile tests; more meetings between railway authorities on the Munabao-Khokhrapar rail link; biannual meeting between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Pakistan Rangers in October an memorandum of understanding on narcotics control in October/November 2004; meeting between the Indian Coast Guards and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in November to discuss an MoU, an experts group to consider issues related to trade; further meetings on travel documents, relating to the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and the institution of a tourist visa, were movements forwards on relations between India and Pakistan.

Young foreign service officers will visit India and Pakistan from each others' countries to understand the nations. The declaration also sealed a meeting between Pakistan President Pervej Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York on the margins of UN General Assembly.

The Pakistan Prime Minister will visit India in connection with Saarc and the two Prime Ministers will meet in Dhaka, in January 2005, on the margins of the Saarc summit. The foreign secretaries of the two countries, when they meet later this year will work out time schedules for discussions on other subjects.

Although the joint statement spoke of the implementation of agreements reached by defence secretaries on Siachen in their meeting in August this year, the fact is that at the meeting the defence secretaries agreed on nothing.

India's position is that until the actual ground position line is not demarcated, there can be no redeployment of forces.

Pakistan says that as the Line of Control was only demarcated till NJ9842 extending to the space India calls Indira Col, the space between that"" till the Karakoram Pass "" should be demilitarised.

India believes that if this space is vacated, Pakistan will occupy it. It was merely this zero sum formulation that the defence secretaries agreed to in August when they met.