India, Pak leave history behind to take new path Part 1

New Delhi: India and Pakistan Monday scripted a momentous chapter to their chequered bilateral ties as they termed their peace process "irreversible", agreed to initiate more social contacts and diplomatic confidence-building and decided to work for a "final settlement" of the Kashmir dispute.

After a three-day visit by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, ostensibly to watch a cricket match here but which ended up as another round of bilateral peace diplomacy, the two nuclear-armed countries seemed to have come a long way since they put the world on edge by nearly going to war three years ago.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with whom Musharraf hit it off well and with whom he had several informal meetings and formal talks, summed up his sentiments about the man - whom India had once dubbed as the architect of the Kargil conflict - as a "leader with whom we think we can do business with".
He said the two countries were moving forward in their peace process, looking at their problems "in the wider context of a shared future of a vibrant South Asia.

It was a rare convergence of political views in the independent history of the two countries. It was also a rare instance in their history when their leaders, used to trading charges and highly suspicious of rival intentions, heaped praise on each other, reflecting the enormous change in the atmospherics since a peace process was initiated one and a half years ago.

For the first time the two countries recognised the enormous potential of their largely untapped bilateral trade and resolved that the "two leading economies of South Asia should work together for the greater prosperity of the region."
The almost complete absence of rancour and the unprecedented bonhomie were evident right from the time Musharraf, accompanied by his wife Sehba, arrived Saturday to the time he left Monday afternoon for Manila, nearly three hours behind schedule because of his hectic engagements.

In a demonstration that this was no repeat of the disastrous Agra summit in the summer of 2001, when Musharraf left in a huff failing to persuade then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to a joint statement, there was a 17-point joint statement this time that covered the entire gamut of issues between the two countries. Cont.