India and Pakistan begin third round of peace talks

The foreign secretaries of the two nuclear powers are set to release a joint statement, having completed preliminary portions of their third round of peace talks, New Delhi Television reports. The statement "is likely to list dates for technical level talks between the two countries among other measures," as well as plans for improved transportation across their shared border.

Peace talks between India and Pakistan have slowed since the October earthquake that rocked the Kashmir region of the Pakistani-Indian border. But although Gen. Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan, "called the need to deal with the devastation the 'opportunity of a lifetime' to end hostilities," little progress has been made since, the Associated Press reports.

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... Neither [Musharraf] nor Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken significant steps to grasp that opportunity. There have been no joint appearances, no rush to step up peace talks, no grand gesture of any kind that might push a stuttering, two-year-old reconciliation process forward.

Even the smallest gesture - the opening of five border points where Kashmiris could theoretically cross the frontier - has been mired in so much red tape as to be largely meaningless. Just 750 people have been able to cross, officials say.

An Indian offer to provide much-needed helicopters to Pakistan's quake zone was turned down because Musharraf's government would not accept Indian military pilots flying them. Aid shipments between the two sides have also been kept to largely symbolic levels.

The latest peace talks, the third round since the process began in 2003, have centered so far on Kashmir and the two nations' nuclear arsenals. India submitted a proposal that the nations cease building military posts along the Line of Control (LOC), the border between their respective territories in Kashmir, in order to ease tensions, reports The Financial Express of India. India also proposed regular high-level military meetings at the LOC between the two countries.

The Daily Times of Pakistan reports that, in a proposal meant to reduce the likelihood of war, Pakistan suggested that anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) be banned throughout South Asia.

The logic behind calling the region an ABM free zone, the Pakistani official said, was that India was engaged with the US to enter into a national missile defence (NMD) agreement to procure missile shields to de-fang the Pakistani arsenal. In case India joined an NMD, Pakistan would be hard pressed to seek ways to counter it, he said.

During the talks, the Pakistani foreign secretary told Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran that Pakistan was ready to consider the Indian draft on reducing risks of nuclear accidents or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons. He also said Pakistan was ready to work towards the formalisation a ballistic agreement.

Pakistan also requested further clarification of India's official nuclear policies. While India has indicated in the past that it has a policy of "no-first use" regarding its nuclear arsenal, Pakistan is seeking further assurances. "What we have heard is the draft nuclear doctrine and we don't know the validity of the no-first use," a senior Pakistani official told the Times.

Much of the latest friction between the two nations comes from the fighting in Pakistan's western province of Balochistan. For over a year, the Pakistani military has been battling tribal and nationalist rebels, such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), reports the BBC. The rebels are demanding "more autonomy for the province and an end to military cantonments and huge development projects that they feel may marginalise the local Baloch population."

The BLA, for its part, says it is fighting "Punjabi domination" - the sense that Balochistan's natural resources are being exploited by a state apparatus dominated by people from the province of Punjab.

On Dec. 27, the Indian government released a statement expressing concern over Pakistan's use of heavy military force in Balochistan, and urged Pakistan to "exercise restraint." Pakistan took umbrage to what it saw as India's "interference in the internal affairs of other countries," and advised that Indian officials "mind their own business."

President Musharraf has since accused India of aiding the Baloch rebels, reports The Hindu of India, "and maintained that Pakistan had proof of this." India has denied involvement in the Balochistan uprising. The issue was raised again at the talks on Tuesday, reports the Daily Times of Pakistan.

Asked if the Balochistan issue was brought up in the meeting, [Indian spokesman Navtej Sarna] said the Pakistani side did raise objections to India's pronouncements on Balochistan and called them interference in the internal affairs of their country. "But, we rejected their objections," he said, adding that it was not interference and India continued to be concerned over the situation in Balochistan.

Opposition parties in Pakistan have also expressed concern over the situation in Balochistan, and have said that military force may only make the situation worse, reports The Times of India.

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