Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

Kashmir
On the very first evening of the summit, Musharraf gave a speech
which seemed to push all the right buttons: ‘The legacy of the past
years was not a happy one … blood has been spilt, precious lives
have been lost.we must not allow the past to dictate the future,’ he
declared in his speech at the Indian President’s dinner. 6 Musharraf’s
call for peace changed the atmosphere and set a positive tone for the
summit. The General seemed to have established a good rapport with
the ageing Indian Prime Minister. Unlike any other summit, the Agra
summit had no prior agreed-upon agenda and most of the meetings
were one-on-one.
Inevitably though, the summit ended in a stalemate on 16 July
2001, with the two leaders unable to agree on the wording of the
declaration. 7 The deadlock did not come as a surprise. The final
breakdown came when India refused to accept the centrality of the
Kashmir issue and insisted on including the question of ‘cross-border
terrorism’ in the declaration. Pakistan also showed its reservations over
the reference to the Agra process as a continuation of the Simla and
Lahore declarations. 8 Both sides blamed each other of intransigence,
but the reality was that neither leader was prepared to resist pressure
from their respective hardliners.
Musharraf’s position certainly didn’t leave much room for
compromise in negotiations. Never before had a Pakistani leader
brought Kashmir to the centre of the summit table as forcefully as he
did. His blunt talk with the Indian media editors on 16 July, which was
televised by several networks, was also used by the Indian hardliners
to obstruct an accord. The mood on the Indian side turned visibly
bitter when Musharraf declared there should not be any illusion that
the main issue confronting the two countries was Kashmir. ‘I will keep
saying it whether anyone likes it or not,’ he said.
All was not lost, however. 9 Musharraf and Vajpayee bade each
other goodbye with a promise to meet again and pick up the threads
from there. Despite the acrimony and bitterness that marked its
closure, the Agra summit had broken the ice and revived the process
of dialogue which had frozen after the Kargil conflict in the summer
of 1999. The Indian Prime Minister accepted Pakistan’s invitation
for a return visit to Islamabad. It was also agreed to hold summit
meetings between the Indian and Pakistani leaders once a year,
and biannual talks at the foreign ministerial level to discuss issues
relating to peace, security, confidence-building measures, Kashmir,
narcotics and terrorism.
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