A Reward for Reaching Out

When two nuclear-armed nations that fought three wars and nearly clashed in a fourth agree to peace talks, celebrations are in order. The leaders of India and Pakistan overcame opposition by some of their own supporters this week to agree on a new round of talks. The hardest task will be separating the dialogue from the on-again, off-again goodwill of two aging and threatened leaders.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee reached out to Pakistan twice in recent years but was rebuffed. In April, he tried for what he said was the last time; fortunately, he had some success. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf reciprocated and ordered his troops to cease fire along the de facto border in Kashmir, a territory claimed by both countries and the cause of two of their three wars.

Vajpayee is 79 and in failing health. Musharraf narrowly escaped assassination twice last month. India and Pakistan do not have time for leisurely dialogue. Both leaders should pressure their aides to discuss the specific issues that divide them without making talks hinge on progress on any one issue.

Kashmir is the only majority Muslim state in India, a secular nation whose people are overwhelmingly Hindu. Since Pakistan, a Muslim nation, and India became independent of Britain in 1947, both have occupied parts of Kashmir. An uprising that began in 1989 in the Indian part of the territory has killed more than 60,000 people and provoked brutal retaliatory tactics by Indian security forces. Pakistan has helped Islamic fighters battle Indian soldiers in Kashmir, where extremists continue to demand independence or annexation by Pakistan.

Musharraf’s pledge not to let terrorists use Pakistani territory to launch attacks was an important breakthrough. The attempts on Musharraf’s life, at least one the work of Islamic radicals, should show him he cannot control the militants; he has to disable them and seek peace with his neighbor. For too long India and Pakistan have acted as if one’s gain must be the other’s loss. An end to hostilities -- and an agreement on ways to reduce the risk of nuclear attack, define borders and share water sources -- will benefit both New Delhi and Islamabad. Both countries are poor and would be better off spending resources on schools and electrical power than on guns and bombs.

The 1947 partition that produced India and Pakistan landed friends, and sometimes families, on different sides of the border. Subsequent generations have known only fear and hatred, except for too-brief thaws that allowed minimal movement between the two countries. It would probably take years for people and goods to move between India and Pakistan as routinely as between the U.S. and Mexico or Canada, but if the day arrives, Musharraf and Vajpayee will deserve credit.