The Defence Secretary-level Siachen round of talks between India and Pakistan concluded along expected lines on Tuesday with both sides agreeing to continue with efforts to seek an amicable resolution of the issue.
A joint statement issued at the end of the talks said the two sides agreed to continue dialogue on Siachen in keeping with the desire of the leaders of both countries for early resolution of outstanding issues. Both sides acknowledged that the ceasefire was holding since 2003.
The talks were led for India by Shashikant Sharma and Pakistan by Nargis Sethi. On Monday, the Indian delegation also met Defence Minister Naveed Qamar. Both countries speak about demilitarising the world's highest battlefield but differ over the modalities. While Pakistan wants demilitarisation first, India is insistent that the Actual Ground Position Line be authenticated before withdrawal of troops from the glacier.
Keywords: Defence Secretary-level talks, Siachen issue
It is the first constitutional duty of the Bharat Republic to maintain territorial integrity
of the country, including all of Kashmir. It is China and Pakistan that must get out of
Kashmir without any conditions. Bharat must never vacate any part of Kashmir to
anybody. We must also demand China to get out of Tibet and Pakistan to get of
Baluch. It may take a long time but we can never compromise on territorial & national integrity.
India should not make any attempt to demilitarize Siachen for two principal reasons: first of all, Pakistan has no business to be where they are now; they are a occupation force there. Second, our bilateral relations with Pakistan does not enjoy the amount of trust that should compel us to consider the option of troop withdrawal. As retired Indian General Shankar Roychowdhuri said in a television debate on the issue that it would be a folly if India vacate the strategically advantageous position on Siachen that her force won through hard fought battle. Pakistan still harbours the ambition of occupying the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir and there is no guarantee that they would not try to do a repeat of 1999 in a better prepared manner. However, since the LoC has come to be accepted as de facto international border, both India and Pakistan must sign a pledge not to violate that. Pakistan has to do more as it is terrorists sponsored by them that repeatedly perpetrate incursions.
I think India and Pakistan should look for demarcating and authenticating the line of control in Siachen and then pledge to not violate it.
If Pakistan does not agree to respect the line of authentication and pledge to not violate it then there is no deal. After that pledge, armies can withdraw from the line of authentication. India's position should be to give sanctity to the line of authentication the same as LoC.
Why should India leave Siachen?? It is for Pakistan to leave not only Siachen but also whole of POK.
Given past history, India would be wise not to trust Pakistan. With improvements in equipment etc, Indian troops are not as much affected by the hositle conditions in Siachin as in the past. Pakistan is obviously facing difficulties in maintaining its troops there. Why should India oblige when Pakistan shows no willingness to stop supporting terrorist attacks against it and is unwilling to arrest the chief of the LeT which carried out the Mumbai attacks. It is also unwilling to extridite Dawood Ibrahim to India.
“Breakthrough” Dialogue is an unnecessary process and any issue between India & Pakistan are not going to be resolved. First off, both nations should give a priority to resolve their internal issues rather than talking about external problems.
Ministry of defense need to ask DRDO to develop every possible technology which can make the life of our armed forces easy on high altitudes. Looking at the positions where our armed forces are based, because of which India has an advantage to target important installations of Pak, India need to maintain its occupation on Siachen. The kind of strategic advantage Indian army has because of its bases on Siachen, Pak army is not having that advantage. Siachen is hell on earth for Pak army, its forces are ill prepared to be stationed at such difficult terrain, its govt is not able to finance the Siachen deployment. One day Pak will voluntarily vacate Siachen, India just has to wait...
India should not trust pakistan atleast on security issues.The main reason for reconcillation is bcoz pakistan survival is in jeopardy.
There should be no demiliterisation of army from our side...
if Pakistan take steps to arrest the 2008 mumbai blast masterminds and people like Dawood are extradited, then we can think the Pakistan intentions are good. Otherwise we will be shooting ourself in the leg, if we believe in the all the good noise Pakistan is making for demilitarization of Siachen. In Siachen India has an advatage position, and pakistan has nothing to lose. So don't give way to emotions and Pakistan trying to sound like a Dove.
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