The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan met here on Wednesday, agreeing to a set of small but significant concessions to ease tensions in the disputed border region of Kashmir and pledging to work towards closer ties between their mutually wary, nuclear-armed countries.
The meeting came just two weeks after three synchronized explosions ripped through the city of Mumbai at rush hour, killing 24 people, wounding more than 100 and raising fresh Indian suspicions about possible Pakistani subterfuge. The decision by both sides to proceed with the meeting anyway represented a clear indication that broad-based talks aimed at resolving issues between the two countries are back on track. They had been stalled for more than two years after Pakistani gunmen killed more than 160 people in a rampage through Mumbai.
“We have reaffirmed our commitment to resolve all outstanding issues through a comprehensive, serious and sustained dialogue,” said S. M. Krishna, India’s foreign minister, after the meeting.
“This is indeed a new era of bilateral cooperation,” said Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s 34-year-old new foreign minister, the first woman to hold that position and one of the youngest. “I believe it is the desire of both countries to make an uninterrupted and uninterruptible process.”
India and Pakistan share a long and fractious border and have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, which both claim as theirs. Other issues, like the sharing of the water from the Indus Valley rivers, are also difficult points of contention. Both countries have nuclear weapons. . The United States has long wanted India and Pakistan to resolve their differences so that Pakistan might focus its attention on fighting the Taliban and other Islamic militants on its western frontier.
The measures the ministers announced were relatively small but represent a significant change in tone and outlook for the relationship between the two countries, analysts said.
The number of days cross border trade will be allowed between the two sides of Kashmir will be doubled, from two to four. The two governments agreed to make it easier for Kashmiris from either side to cross the border. Travel permits are currently only issued to people with relatives on the other side, but on Wednesday the ministers agreed to allow people to visit for tourism and religious pilgrimages as well. They also pledged to reduce the amount of time it takes for applicants to secure travel permits to 45 days or less, rather than the 3 to 4 months it currently takes.
The two ministers agreed that they would meet in the first half of 2012 to discuss progress.
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