Says terrorism biggest obstacle in improving relations.
The high commissioner was speaking as guest speaker on “State of India-Pakistan bilateral relations – Current issues and prospects” organised by Centre for Research and Security Studies here on Monday.
“The change from ‘composite’ to ‘comprehensive’ dialogue will hopefully be more than a change of nomenclature”, he said adding that both the neighbouring countries had been impacted by an absence of a real bilateral relationship.
Raghavan said that the recent joint statement by the foreign ministers of the two countries made a good attempt to resume the stalled process, which was abandoned in 2008.
He said that relations between most neighbouring countries around the world suffered from deadlocks and disputes, only exceptions being the US and Canada, and countries within the European Union.
“The challenge is how countries work together to evolve a good, working and mutually-beneficial relationship,” the envoy said.
He said that in the last sixty-eight years very little was contributed towards evolution of a real relationship between both the countries.
“Both countries have low level of trade, virtually no bilateral investment and little people-to-people exchanges,” the high commissioner said.
Pakistan has always had a defensive perspective with regards to Kashmir and it disregards and overlooks the concerns which many people in India have about the same issue, he said.
“If you ask any Indian, Kashmir is an integral part of India, and our constitution recognises that, then how do we move forward on this issue, when both sides have such firm positions?” he questioned.
Raghavan observed that progress could be achieved when both countries add real depth to the relations.
He said that from 2004-2008, there were many confidence-building steps taken by both the countries and the issues in the comprehensive dialogue would mostly be the same.
“We have to wait and see whether this attempt will be different than the previous ones,” he said.
Raghavan said that terrorism posed the biggest obstacle in improvement of relations between the two countries.
Security expert Lt-Gen (retired) Talat Masood noted that for economic development countries needed to have a functioning relationship. “How can there be more trade when there is instability on the border?” he asked.
He said that the region would not make real progress unless both countries work together and normalise their relations.
Masood said that India and Pakistan were not the only parties in the Kashmir dispute but both must recognise people of Kashmir as an important stakeholder.
He said that Pakistan had serious concerns about the situation in the valley and the state of human rights in Kashmir.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15th, 2015.
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