Siachen dispute ended in a logjam in Islamabad today.This correspondent understands that the two-day talks, which concluded in a whimper today, had hit a dead-end within the first hour of the talks yesterday itself.
Contrary to Pakistani media reports that Islamabad was after all willing to concede the fundamental Indian demand of authentication of current level of troops deployment of both sides, no such thing happened at the talks. The Pakistani side refused pointblank to agree to the authentication of the troops’ present position.
Instead, Islamabad proposed to authenticate the “future” position of deployment of troops on the world’s highest battlefield only, and only after, the Indian troops were to withdraw from their present position and redeploy at lower altitudes. The Pakistani side emphasised on the implementation of the 1989 bilateral agreement on Siachen and the authentication of future positions.
The Indian side, which had gone to Islamabad, armed with a brief from India’s apex government body on national security matters, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) that met on the eve of the talks, stuck to its guns.
The result: the Siachen ice has not melted and is not going to melt in near future. It will take the top political as well as the military leadership from the two countries to make Siachen the mountain of peace, a vision articulated by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
On the first day of talks, the Indian side was given to believe that their concern would be addressed and Islamabad would record the present position of its troops.
Pakistan said “no” to authentication of present troops’ position, maintaining that India forcibly occupied the Siachen heights in 1984 in violation of the 1949 Karachi Agreement. Moreover, the Pakistani position is that the 1972 Simla Accord makes it clear that if the Indian demand were to stake a claim on Siachen through the authentication process, it could not be accepted.
That is largely because the Pakistanis fear that authentication of the present position would effectively nullify the 110-km-long Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) and lead to authentication of the Indian “occupied position”. Thus the AGPL would become virtually become the line of control, according to the Pakistani perspective.
The talks were held in Rawalpindi yesterday and today. The Pakistan delegation was led by Kamran Rasool, while the Indian delegation was led by Shekar Dutt.
A statement released simultaneously in Islamabad and New Delhi said: “The discussions were held in a candid and constructive atmosphere. The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to the November 2003 ceasefire between the two countries which is holding successfully”. It also noted that the defence secretaries agreed to continue the discussions to resolve the Siachen dispute “in a peaceful manner.”
