Gains for India and Pakistan

The hope that India and Pakistan might be able to produce a lasting cease-fire and avoid a fourth war -- this one with nuclear weapons -- grew stronger after their meeting at the United Nations last week. It’s what the leaders of the two nations did not say that was most encouraging.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not talk about “cross-border terrorism,� which translates to Pakistan allowing guerrillas to cross into the Indian state of Kashmir to murder anyone opposing Kashmir’s independence or annexation to Pakistan. For his part, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf did not ask the U.N. to condemn human rights violations by India in Kashmir. Exchanges of charges and denunciations had become staples of meetings between top officials of the South Asian neighbors.

Both men -- each of whom was born in what is now the other’s country, such are the vicissitudes of South Asian history -- later extended the surprising aura of good feeling, with Singh declaring Musharraf “a person with whom we can do business� and the Pakistani leader calling Singh “an extremely sincere man.�

The welcome improvement in relations builds on the meeting of Singh’s predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with Musharraf last January. Vajpayee deserves credit for trying several times to launch a peace process; it is unfortunate that his Bharatiya Janata Party is less accommodating. It denounced Singh for not raising a public outcry over the incursions into Indian territory during his meeting with Musharraf. The Pakistani leader did not escape unscathed either, with some foes saying he should have spoken out about Indian security forces’ brutal treatment of Kashmiris. Both countries control parts of Kashmir, and the territory has been the flashpoint for two of their three wars. The most recent years of violence have resulted in at least 60,000 deaths and have been a rallying point for radical Islamists, many of them veterans of the war against the Soviets following their invasion of Afghanistan.

Officials are due to resume negotiations soon over issues that include a proposed gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan into India, and a troop pullback from the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir, which at 21,000 feet is the world’s highest battlefield.

It is encouraging that Singh, whose Congress Party won the April parliamentary elections, is willing to pick up where his predecessor left off in dealing with Musharraf. India and Pakistan need to continue their small, steady steps toward a lasting peace, one not solely dependent on the likes and dislikes of individual leaders