The Peace move initiated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his Srinagar visit last year is back on track. Gen Musharraf, who has been shooting his mouth off on Kashmir, had a good meeting with the new Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the sidelines of UN General Assembly meet. Initially, though both the leaders were skeptical of each other, they agreed to take forward the peace process.
Keeping pace with the meeting of the heads of the two countries Foreign Secretary-level talks are on and there appears to be a sincere effort from both ends to ease restrictions on people to people contact within the two countries. Talks on extending confidence building measures, notifying each other prior to undertaking missile tests, nuclear installations and sharing of water are on. While India is keen that Pakistan opens up its market to give it greater access, Pakistan wants India to partner in overland gas pipeline from Central Asia.
Despite disagreements and mutual suspicion about each others intent, the dispensation in India and Pakistan appear to have realised that there cannot be an overnight settlement of the long pending dispute and that peace needs to be given a serious try.
- Prakash Pillai