A joint statement issued at the end of the two-day talks said both sides agreed to continue the dialogue on Siachen ‘in keeping with the desire of the leaders of both the countries for early resolution of all outstanding issues’. Both countries “acknowledged that the ceasefire (in Siachen) was holding since 2003”. The stand off began in 1984.
Selective memory is no good on issues of military and strategic importance. Siachen is not only strategic location wise, it is also the world’s highest battle ground where no blade of grass grows because of ice everywhere.
Pakistan’s interest today is neither demarcation of the boundary on the glacier nor resolution of the issue in the light of arrangements discussed in 1989 and 1992. Its sole concern is how to avoid a repeat of a tragedy that had stuck its army camp on April 7 and resulted in the death of 139 army men including a few senior officers in an avalanche in the Gayari area of the glacier. Visiting Gayari for a second time after the avalanche, Pakistan army chief, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, set the ball rolling for demilitarization talk.
Nargis Sethi’s lament over the damage to environment due to the deployment of troops on the glacier is at best an after thought to offer a talking point to the Green Brigade.
Otherwise, why Pakistan is reluctant to the authentication and demarcation of current military positions on Siachen. Its insistence on demilitarization first is no more than putting the cart before the horse. Unless the Actual Ground Position Line is authenticated how can troops be withdrawn from the glacier.
The onus of improving bilateral relations clearly doesn’t lie with India alone. Pakistan, where the military calls the shots, must be prepared to walk the talk.
At the last round of talks in New Delhi in May 2011, Pakistan had submitted a non-paper on Siachen, in which it reportedly made out a case for including China in the Siachen talks. This was not acceptable to India, which has been viewing with growing concern the increased presence of the Chinese in Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. It is for nothing, a former Indian army chief, General Shankar Roy Chowdhury maintains that the Siachen glacier and the Saltoro range must be viewed ‘in the overall context of their location near the India-China-Pakistan tri-junction’.
