September 24, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described his meeting with General Musharraf as ‘historic’, after it was announced that India and Pakistan would consider ‘all possible options’ would be considered for solving the Kashmir dispute. The General walks away happy because of all possible options, and Dr Singh would be able to quibble about all possible options.
But as history has shown, ‘historic’ meetings with leaders of Pakistan are quite often historic from a purely relative point of view. Tashkent 1965 , Simla 1971, Lahore 1999 and Islamabad 2004 were all historic too, but unfortunately apart from dentrifice decorations for toothpaste advertisements, the meetings amount to little progress.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Musharraf toned down about Kashmir in his own self-interest, as the international community would quite likely frown on his sabre-rattling. How historic could the talks be when the terrorism and infiltration continues unabated? It is quite usual for Musharraf preach something in Washington and practise something totally different back home.
Update: Pakistan’s Daily Times must have report the joint statement in a moment of over-enthusiasm. The text of the statement just mentions ‘possible options’.
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