Asia: A Whiff of Normalization

From camps on the outskirts of West Pakistan's capital of Lahore, retreating Indian soldiers hit the road for the Indian frontier city of Amritsar, 30 miles away. Others manhandled weapons and ammunition down through the snowdrifts of the 8,600-ft. Haji Pir pass. Pakistani units pulled back from the sand dunes of Rajasthan and the villages in the Vale of Kashmir. On both sides of the 1,000-mile border between West Pakistan and India, as the armies fell back, tens of thousands of displaced farmers abandoned makeshift huts and refugee compounds to begin the long tramp, with families and camels, back to their gutted homes and untended fields.

After one month of battle and six of armed truce, Pakistani-Indian relations were at long last returning to normality. Normality, of course, did not mean friendship. Not when the emotional question of Kashmir was involved. But at least the two nations, under terms of the Tashkent agreement, were talking together again—to the vast relief of both Washington and Moscow. Besides the troop pullback and civilian exchange, commercial flights between India and Pakistan have been resumed, diplomatic relations fully reestablished, some mail and telegraph services put back in operation. Last week India's turbaned Foreign Minister Sardar Swaran Singh flew into Rawalpindi at the head of a 23-man delegation to discuss further "normalization."

The visit was not a big success. India's plan was to discuss the resumption of trade and tourist travel—anything, that is, except the issue that started the war in the first place: Kashmir. Pakistan wanted to talk about self-determination for Kashmir first and everything else afterwards. Barked Pakistan's Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto: "The Kashmir dispute cannot be buried under any amount of debris. In fact, this subcontinent does not have enough debris to bury it."

There were some faint signs of hope. Singh did permit Kashmir to be listed as an area of "dispute" in the conference's official communiqué—which was considered progress by the Pakistanis because until now India has called Kashmir an internal problem. When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visits the U.S. on March 27, Lyndon Johnson will undoubtedly want to hear about plans for further action. As inspiration, the U.S. last week announced the resumption of "nonlethal" military shipments to both India and Pakistan (cars, trucks, transport planes). The hint was clear: when India and Pakistan become still closer friends, other types of military shipments may be resumed as well.