A Cooler South Asia

Temperatures in New Delhi soared past 100 degrees last week, typical for this time of year and formerly a good incentive to flee to the northern state of Kashmir, rent a houseboat and fish for trout in cold mountain streams. But for more than a decade, Kashmir has been more accustomed to shootings and bombings than vacations. Recent moves by India and Pakistan indicate they are serious about ending their decades-long quarrel over the region, the main sticking point between two countries that have fought three wars and now have nuclear weapons.

The two nations’ foreign secretaries met for two days last week, their first talks in six years. Later, they took advantage of a meeting of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations in Jakarta for a private huddle and to separately brief U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Washington played a big part in keeping Islamabad and New Delhi from going to war two years ago and should not let South Asia drop off the radar screen because of Iraq or other U.S. problems.

The foreign secretaries’ meeting was disappointing in that it didn’t get much beyond a boilerplate statement of agreement to reach an eventual “peaceful, negotiated final settlement” on Kashmir. There was, however, limited progress in other areas such as reopening diplomatic missions. Even those small steps are important in building a foundation for agreement on bigger issues. Such progress would have been unthinkable in 2002, when the two countries massed nearly 1 million troops along their border.

Credit for reducing tensions goes to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian government that was voted out of office in May. Unfortunately, Bharatiya Janata is now accusing the new Congress Party-led government of giving away too much in negotiations with Pakistan. Considering the tentative moves on both sides, the party’s claims are cheap politics, not substantive criticism. But the carping does reflect the pressures on the new prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to be a tough bargainer with Pakistan. Nor is Pakistan’s leader, Pervez Musharraf, immune from pressure, especially from hard-line Islamists willing to cross from Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir into India’s territory to inflict terror in the only predominantly Muslim state in India.

Violence in Kashmir began in 1989 after India rigged a state election. Muslim radicals crossing from Pakistan have been responsible for many of the more than 60,000 deaths in the last 15 years. Pakistan says it has stopped the border crossings, and it indeed must do so if it ever hopes to solve its biggest conflict with India since both nations became independent from Britain in 1947.

Problems that develop over decades are not solved in weeks or months. But if the two countries can keep talking rather than conducting missile tests and putting troops on their border, they should eventually be able to agree to let each other live in peace.