India-Pakistan Summit Finally Ruptured

A historical summit between India and Pakistan, the two long time adversaries, seeking for reconciliation abruptly broke off without a joint declaration due to the 53 years old Kashmir conflict issue.

After the summit ruptured, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who visited the Northern Indian city Agra on 14th for the summit with the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, returned to Islamabad yesterday early morning, after meeting the Prime Minister Vajpayee for an hour to say goodbye on Monday night.

A source said that although the Prime Minister Vajpayee accepted President Musharraf’s invitation to Pakistan during the summit, it is not sure whether a following summit can be carried out since the summit ended without a result.

The summit progressed well in an amicable atmosphere until Monday afternoon as the two presidents discussed the nuclear weapons, war prisoners, and trade issues and even prepared the first draft for a joint statement. However, about the issue of Kashmir, since the two presidents had different opinions on the definition of the Kashmir conflict, the summit could not make any further progress.

While President Musharraf remarked, ``Without solving the problem of Kashmir, it is impossible to see the two countries advancing for a normalization``, Prime Minister Vajpayee said, ``Various issues should be dealt including the issue of the Kashmir region’s rebellion by the Islamic militia who have been supported by Pakistan.`` Foreign news agencies reported that the both countries could not yield since they had to consider the hardliners of their own countries.

Pakistan criticized India saying, ``Although the three first drafts of the joint statement were prepared, the Vajpayee administration rejected them. President Musharraf waited for a plausible response until the scheduled time passed. But India did not show any good faith.``

Pakistani Information Secretary Anwar Mahmood pointed out by saying, ``India did not even agree on the sentences that were edited by themselves.``

Indian officials also said, ``As President Musharraf called the Kashmir militia `freedom fighters`, his attitude was not appropriate for the negotiation.``

In the meantime, even during the summit, the conflict of the Kashmir region continued killing 220 soldiers of both countries since 4th including 42 members from both sides on 16th.

Hong Kwon-Heui konihong@donga.com