He is a columnist with The Hindu, hosts a weekly show on national security at The Wire. Type: Podcast. Global Policy. The event marked a milestone for the group, which started as an ad hoc coordination mechanism for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief after the Indian Ocean tsunami. The four leaders unveiled a slate of new initiatives on a range of pressing global issues — from climate change and COVID to technology, infrastructure and education — as well as formalized plans to meet annually.
Type: Analysis and Commentary. Earlier this year, Russia, China and Pakistan affirmed that the future of Afghanistan should be decided through dialogue and political negotiations. How will they engage with the Taliban now? Since we are currently more concerned about setting the stage for settlement rather than the shape the settlement will take, we believe that is it both untimely and harmful to indulge in or encourage controversies about the most desirable solution to the dispute.
Any attempt to do so at this point of time amounts to playing into the hands of those who would prefer to maintain a status quo that is intolerable to the people of Kashmir and also a continuing threat to peace in South Asia. It also succumbs to the wishes of those who would like to give the impression that Kashmir is the most complex issue right now. Complexity is in the eyes of the beholder. There is not a single international issue that is not complex.
If there is interest in resolving the issue, then complexity becomes a motivating factor. If there is none, then complexity becomes an instrument of passivity and inaction. We depreciate the raising of quasi-legal or pseudo-legal questions during the preparatory phase of the final settlement of the Kashmir dispute. It only serves to befog the issue and to convey the wrong impression that the dispute is too complicated to be resolved and that India and Pakistan hold equally inflexible positions.
Such an impression does great injury to the cause. The United Nations is in a unique position to play a more activist and mediatory role in regard to Kashmir by initiating a peace process. This can take the shape of:. In neither case would the handling of the dispute be a rehash of the old arid and acrimonious debates at the U. The United States, by itself or through the U. There are alternative courses of action that can be spelled out and involve a sequence of interactive steps over a period of time.
None of them would put the peace process in the straitjacket of rigid adherence to old texts. But if a solution to the problem will be a graduated process, consisting of incremental measures, the violence in Kashmir needs to be brought to a quick end in order to set the stage for a solution.
It is interesting to note that when the Kashmir dispute erupted in , the world powers championed the stance that the future status of Kashmir must be determined by the will of the people of the territory and that their wishes must be ascertained under the supervision and control of the U. The U. The basic formula for settlement was incorporated in later resolutions.
At times, various proposals have been made by different people to set the stage for a settlement of the long-standing conflict of Kashmir. Most of them seem to be absolute non-solutions. However, regarding solutions, I would rule out one thing and that is not helping: Time.
It is not on the side of Kashmiris. Time will never heal the problem. Time has made things worst in Kashmir. Let me mention some of the so-called "solutions" here. I believe that any future negotiations between India and Pakistan can be meaningful and successful if all parties concerned — the governments of India and Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership — take the following steps:. First, the Government of India must rescind the Domicile law, which was enacted in simply to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir.
Until this is done, the people of Kashmir are on the brink of genocide. Second, there has to be a cease-fire from all sides that must be followed by negotiations. Negotiations cannot be carried out at a time when parties are trying to kill each other. Third, there cannot be and should not be any preconditions from any party other than a commitment to non-violence and to negotiations.
Therefore, the time has come that there must be third-party mediation, facilitation or engagement to make sure that the talks between India and Pakistan remain focused.
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