“Islamabad and New Delhi must move forward on a menu of outstanding items in order to move the region out from the shadows of instability, human insecurity and lost opportunities in trade, energy, information connectivity,” said a joint resolution issued after the 4th Delhi Dialogue arranged by the Jinnah Institute and Centre for Dialogue and Reconstruction, which concluded in New Delhi on Friday.
The dialogue brought together journalists, policy experts, academics, advocates, former military officials and diplomats from India and Pakistan for two days of intense deliberations to discuss a wide range of outstanding issues between both countries.
The session on Afghanistan saw support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process in Afghanistan and recognised that a peaceful Afghanistan is essential for regional stability.
It recommended that serious efforts be made towards exploring the possibility of Pakistan granting India overland transit rights for trade with Afghanistan and India granting overland transit rights to Pakistan for other South Asian countries.
Urging both countries not to let competing interests in Afghanistan negatively impact bilateral relations, it also urged the regional countries to initiate a dialogue on adopting a non-interventionist policy.
“We urge both countries to engage with each other to clarify each other’s apprehensions on a post-2014 Afghanistan. We recommend that opportunities for mutual cooperation in the development and reconstruction of Afghanistan be explored, especially under the aegis of Saarc,” said the resolution.
On Kashmir, the resolution agreed that the bilateral dialogue should be irreversible and uninterruptable and urged both India and
Pakistan to fully implement all agreed CBM’s cooperate on outstanding issues and address each other’s concern on key issues like “Kashmir as well as terrorism with the aim of resuming the stalled bilateral dialogue.”
Both governments were urged to urgently take up discussions on Jammu and Kashmir so that a solution that is acceptable to India,Pakistan and the people of Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control can be found.
Of importance was a recommendation that Non-Discriminatory Market Access be granted by Pakistan to India at the earliest, urging India to remove all non-tariff barriers to facilitate trade between both countries.
A statement issued later by the Jinnah Institute said: “As South Asia and the wider region grapples with the menace of transnational conflict, a renewed vigor is required towards resuming the stalled bilateral dialogue between Pakistan and India participants agreed at the recently concluded Delhi Dialogue on Friday.”
Against the backdrop of the upcoming Indian elections, participants agreed that expected victory of a Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could have a transformative effect on bilateral relations between both the countries.
Despite skepticism, participants unanimously hoped that the new government in New Delhi will build upon earlier initiatives taken under previous governments and expeditiously pursue the revival of the stalled dialogue process with Pakistan.
The Pakistani delegation impressed upon its Indian counterparts that unlike India, a cross-party consensus existed in Pakistan on improving relations with India and resolving all outstanding issues. They said that recent overtures of the Pakistan government presented an opportunity which must be reciprocated by India.
The participants also analyzed last year’s ceasefire violations and called on both Indian and Pakistani military establishments to regularise high level staff and field commander meetings to resolve any future untoward incidents on the LoC.
Noting that people-to-people contacts were essential in improving relations between the two nuclear armed neighbours, the dialogue participants recommended the extension of the one year multiple entry visa policy towards all category of travelers, particularly media-persons, artists, students and academics.
They urged both governments to ensure that the Wagah-Attari border is opened for 24 hour operations and both governments should explore opportunities for opening all economically feasible land routes between India and Pakistan for trade and travel, particularly Ganda Singhwala-Ferozpur, Muktasar-Fazilka and Khokhrapar-Munabao.
The Pakistan delegation comprised former ambassador Sherry Rehman, parliamentarian Shafqat Mahmood, former ambassador Aziz Ahmad Khan, former DG ISPR Lt Gen Athar Abbas, Syed Babar Ali, Arshad Zuberi, senior journalists Zahid Hussain, Mariana Baabar, Amir Mateen and Ammara Durrani.
The India delegation comprised former foreign secretary Salman Haider, former Ambassadors Jayant Prasad and Sharat Sabharwal, Dr Rajmohan Gandhi, Siddharth Vardarajan, Prem Shankar Jha, former Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain, Jyoti Malhotra, Suhasini Haidar, Gul Muhammad Wani, Sunil Sethi, and Syeda Hammeda.
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