RESPONDING to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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 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 illegally-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIoJ&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 on 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.
It is known that Pakistan sincerely seeks to resolve all outstanding issues with India, including the long-pending issue of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Conversely, India has been willing to discuss all issues except Kashmir. Pakistan is aware of the fact 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 must realize that talks excluding the Kashmir issue will never be acceptable to Pakistan. Both nations must acknowledge this reality before engaging in discussions on other bilateral matters. Until India demonstrates genuine commitment to resolving the Kashmir conflict, dialogue efforts will remain fruitless.
The UN, the US and 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 reluctance to engage in talks with Pakistan shows it’s unwilling to resolve the longstanding Kashmir dispute through bilateral negotiations. The world community must realize that a dialogue between India and Pakistan, though profoundly essential for 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. It will have to be resolved in accordance with the charter of the UN and the UNSC Resolution of 1948 on occupied Kashmir; the Resolution that cogently declares IIoJ&K a disputed territory and grants right to self-determination to the people of the occupied territory.
Wouldn’t then 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 of the United Nations and equally strong support of the world powers, East Timor got its 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 on 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 IIoJ&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.
—The writer is a columnist and analyst based in Islamabad -Pakistan.
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