By Bilawal Hammad
Your commercial awareness dose
India and Pakistan since their inception are traditional rivals. Both nations came into being in 1947 and since then there a lot of outstanding issues between them. India and Pakistan have fought three wars amongst them. The first one is 1965, the second one is 1971, and the third one in 1999. These two nations have a tumultuous relationship history. Both these nations are against each other in every field of life and on every international forum, be it political or economic.
Many times, superpowers have tried to intervene and resolve their outstanding issues but to no avail. Both India and Pakistan prefer to solve and discuss their issues bilaterally. As both the nations are least interested in solving their bilateral issues amicably therefore, the issues remain persistent and the peace between India and Pakistan remains elusive.
There is a long list of issues between India and Pakistan but, the prime issues include Kashmir, Sikkim, Junagarh, Kargil, cross-border infiltration, and terrorism. India is intransigent that there will be no talks without discussion of terrorism issues and in every bilateral talk, terrorism should be discussed first then any other issue would be discussed. Pakistan demands a resolution of the Kashmir issue first and doesn’t want to discuss any outstanding issues unless the Kashmir issue is solved first.
The recalcitrance of both these nations is lingering the quest for peace not only amongst them but in the whole region of Asia. This is so because Kashmir has been termed by realists as the number one international nuclear flashpoint of the world. Because, both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons and are non-signatory of NPT (Nuclear non-proliferation Treaty). Bandwagon prevails not only in South Asia but actually has spread tentacles in the whole of Asia. Many nations are divided into groups because of the India-Pakistan political narrative.
Regionalism in Asia is ubiquitous. Such regionalism has led to hindrance in the
development and prosperity of Asia especially, in South Asia. It is this India Pakistan tussle that has led to the non-functioning of SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation). Apart from these issues, India and Pakistan also have differences in water distribution. India is an upper riparian state. Water enters Pakistan through India as Pakistan is a lower riparian state. Both these nations signed IWT (Indus Water Treaty) in 1960, which was a water apportionment accord which was signed to distribute water resources among themselves. Nevertheless, there e many outstanding water-related disputes among these two nations.
India and Pakistan signed an agreement to kick start Composite Dialogue in 2004. The Composite Dialogue included all the outstanding issues between these two nations. Unfortunately, the talks could not be sustained and were to no avail. In 2014, both India and Pakistan again kick-started a new dialogue process this time named Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. The Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue was a little different from Composite Dialogue as this time the focus was more on terrorism-related issues.
All other outstanding issues were also included in the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. The same was the case with it as well. The Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue also could not be sustained and here we are in 2020 and almost all of the issues remain there with more being added with time. In early 2019, Pakistan and India were on the brink of another war. This time more lethal. The foreign intervention led to a halt in probable war. However, border skirmishes are still there and are a routine matter now.
In a crux, India and Pakistan are rivals since they came into being. India wants a greater
subcontinent once again and is belligerent towards Pakistan. India aspires to be a hegemony in the regions. There are many outstanding issues between India and Pakistan. Therefore, peace in South Asia, in fact, the whole of Asia, is elusive unless both India and Pakistan solve their issues. India and Pakistan are nuclear nations therefore, Kashmir: a disputed region between them, has been termed by internationalist as the world’s most dangerous nuclear flashpoint. Hence, peace between India and Pakistan is imperative for peace in the world. Both these nations must understand the severity of the matter and major super-powers must work for peace amongst India and Pakistan.
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