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Rahul Bedi

Pakistan claims it will be difficult to resume negotiations with India because of the deadlock over Kashmir.

  The statement by Pakistani Foreign Minister Aseef Ali said Kashmir was the first hurdle to normalising relations between the two nuclear-capable neighbours.

  The comments are an apparent reversal of last week's offer of talks.

  'We seem to have lost sight of the realities before us and we should not be over-optimistic about talks,' Mr Ali said.

  'Before we hold talks there should be a clarity of agenda,' he said, in a direct reference to Kashmir.

  Mr Ali was responding to Indian Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda's offer to resume 'unconditional' bilateral talks after they ended in acrimony in January 1994.

  Considering the animosity, it is near-pointless for any Pakistani or Indian to claim objectivity in assessing bilateral relations.

  But the problem peculiar to both countries is that whenever it seems relations cannot get any worse, the two nations make sure they do.

  Any offer by either side to reduce tension is scuttled soon after it is made.

  Decision-makers have been weaned on a diet of mistrust while those nostalgic about life before partition are too few to help bridge the divide. Suspicion has made cross-border movement impossible.

    Analysts were hopeful that the sides could fashion a working relationship through trade, cultural exchanges and technological information, leaving the 'core' issues to future generations. In the light of new developments, that too seems hopeless.



Rival backtracks on talks offer