Asia Times: EDITORIAL: That was then; this is now



	February 24, 1999	atimes.com

India-Pakistan

EDITORIAL: That was then; this is now

It may be a tall order for a subcontinent that prides itself on over 5,000years of cultural/historical continuity, but Indian Prime Minister AtalBehari Vajpayee's emotional appeal at the end of the Lahore summit with hisPakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to forget history and get on withwriting a new chapter was nonetheless well taken. If India and Pakistan donot soon get beyond 50 years of wars and historical enmity, the future maysimply pass them by.

For their third meeting since both countries exploded nuclear devices lastMay, but the first visit of an Indian prime minister to Pakistan in adecade, the two leaders chose as their initial meeting point a Punjabborder crossing that had remained closed for most of recent memory. Theoccasion was the opening of a Delhi-Lahore bus route, the only thing tangible that the two nations had agreed on during nine months of high-level meetings over their nuclear policy dispute and the seemingly never-ending Kashmir issue.

It was a strange show: As the metal border gates screeched open and the buscarrying Vajpayee crossed the borderline, bands played ''LaPaloma'' and ''Bridge on the River Kwai'' (God knows why); then Vajpayeeemerged from the bus and walked over to heartily embrace the waiting Sharif. Probably wisely, they left the bus to its own devices on itstravel to Lahore and instead boarded a helicopter to get to thesite of the Saturday-and-Sunday summit. Islamic fundamentalists had vowed to disruptthe journey and ''hunt down Vajpayee''; violent clashes in Lahore later onproved they had been dead serious in their threat.

Hardly unexpectedly, the ''Lahore Declaration'' signed by both delegations atthe end of the summit was short on substance. Much of it was formulatedin the future tense: the Kashmir conflict will continue to be discussed byofficials; confidence-building measures in the nuclear weapons field willbe pursued; an agreement on mutual advance notification of ballisticmissile tests will be drawn up, and so on. Unfortunately, history was notput aside as easily as the euphoric Vajpayee appeared to hope.

Still, pictures of the prime ministers' embrace went around the world and,of course, were seen time and again on Indian and Pakistani television.Such symbolic gestures can break the ice and should not be cynicallydismissed.

In their quest to normalize relations between their countries, Sharif andVajpayee would be well-advised to recognize that much of current and futurehistory is economic history. Military issues or ethnic and religiousconflicts will not on that account simply fade away. But by our reading, thecritical failure of the Lahore summit was the failure to change the subjectand agenda, the failure to attempt - if we may be permitted to use military terms - an imaginative flanking maneuver around and away from thorny issues that will notdisappear, but that can be reduced to lesser relevance.

Pakistan's economy, suffering more from U.S. economic sanctions imposed afterlast year's nuclear tests than India's, has since last summer beentottering on the brink of collapse. But even Indian economic growth hasbeen sharply curtailed - although that is an effect more of the larger Asian crisis than of sanctions. Whatever the origins of their problems, though, both countries would do well to immediately explore economic initiatives promising mutual benefit.

More broadly, trapped in enmity that is so important to them but of littlereal concern or interest to almost anyone else, both nations are in danger ofonce again missing the boat as dramatic economic reforms in the course andaftermath of the regional crisis are positioning East Asian economies forrenewed takeoff and sustained future growth.

India at least, after it instituted its own economic reforms in 1991 anduntil the onset of the Asian financial crisis, was beginning to look eastand forged important new trade and investment relations with East Asia. Butboth countries now should fast recognize and act upon the opporunitiesoffered by rekindled Asian growth. Joint economic initiatives directedeastward, which could rapidly pay off, would give officials somethingconcrete and ultimately more important to discuss and worry about thanmilitarily increasingly obsolete and irrelevant nuclear weapons.

As for Kashmir, the line of effective control between India and Pakistan hasfunctioned for decades as a de facto international border. No need to tryand formalize that. Just accept it for what it is.

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