In Focus: The Simla Agreement, 1972 & The Lahore Declaration, 1999

The terms “bilateral resolution of conflict”, ‘Lahore Declaration’ & ‘Simla Agreement’ have recently come into focus

US President Donald Trump recently sent the Ministry of External Affairs into overdrive by suggesting that PM Narendra Modi had asked for America’s help in resolving the age-old Kashmir conflict with Pakistan. With that startling statement by Trump grabbing headlines, the terms “bilateral resolution of conflict”, Lahore Declaration and Simla Agreement have come into focus.

India took no time to declare that PM Modi had not made any such request at any meeting with Trump, having long maintained the diplomatic position that the issue should be resolved bilaterally. The US State Department also issued a statement saying that it was a “bilateral” issue between India and Pakistan, and that they “welcomed” the two countries “sitting down” for talks.

But chatter arose about how the Kashmir issue with Pakistan was a bilateral one, which was only to be sorted out by the two countries sitting down together, without third-party intervention, according to the terms of the Lahore Declaration and the Simla Agreement. Critics of PM Modi also said that if he had in fact made such a request to the US President, he had broken the terms of these two pacts.

So what exactly are these pacts and why are they important?

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How Did the Simla Agreement, 1972 Come About?

In 1971, Pakistan and India fought a full-blown war over East Pakistan, which eventually led to the formation of Bangladesh as a separate country. While the war was a military victory for India, it was left with nearly 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war, according to official records documenting the war and its aftermath. Additionally, Pakistan lost almost half its territory and over 60 percent of its population to the newly formed nation.

With the situation requiring an agreement between the Indian and Pakistani leaders, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Pakistani president was invited to a summit in Simla in the last week of June 1972. The summit was intended to result in a peace treaty to bring about withdrawal of troops and the return of prisoners of war after the 1971 war.

According to historian Ramachandra Guha, India wanted a “comprehensive treaty to settle all outstanding problems”, while Pakistan preferred a “piecemeal approach”. Despite wanting a treaty, what India got was an agreement, owing to the hard bargain struck by the Pakistanis.

The summit finally resulted in the Simla Agreement, a pact signed by then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani President Bhutto on 2 July, 1972.

While on Kashmir, the agreement only spoke of “maintaining the line of control”, on Indian insistence, a clause was added which stated that the two countries would only settle their differences by “peaceful means through bilateral negotiations or by any other peaceful means mutually agreed upon”, writes Guha. This theoretically rules out third-party mediation in Kashmir.

Though Pakistan has repeatedly tried to involve the world community in the Kashmir issue, India has maintained that it is a bilateral matter as agreed to by Pakistan in the Simla Agreement.

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What Does the Simla Agreement State?

Apart from the withdrawal of troops and return of prisoners of the 1971 war, the Simla Agreement was a blueprint for both India and Pakistan to maintain friendly and neighbourly relations with each other. Under the agreement, both the warring countries promised to renounce conflict and confrontation and to make efforts to bring about peace, friendship and cooperation.

Here are the noteworthy principles and provisions of the Agreement:

• “Mutual commitment to the peaceful resolution of all issues through direct bilateral approaches”.
• The “basic issues and causes of conflict which have bedevilled” relations between India and Pakistan between 1947-1972 needed to be resolved by peaceful means.
• Call for a series of confidence-building measures, including the withdrawal of Indian and Pakistani troops behind the Line of Control (LoC) and the resumption of trade.
• Emphasis on respect for each others’ territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as the inviolability of the LoC.
• The LoC would be respected by both countries “without prejudice to the recognised position of either side”, a caveat which was successfully added by Bhutto at the summit, according to Guha.
• Both governments would take steps to prevent hostile propaganda directed against each other.
• In order to normalise relations with each other, both governments would a) resume communication modes, b) promote travel facilities for nationals of the other country, among other measures.
• Until the problems were finally settled, neither side would “unilaterally alter the situation and both shall prevent the organisation, assistance or encouragement of any acts detrimental to the maintenance of peaceful and harmonious relations.”

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What Led to the Lahore Declaration, 1999?

In 1998, India and Pakistan both became established nuclear powers. After escalation of tensions following the tit for tat nuclear tests conducted by both nations, there was tremendous international pressure on them to reopen diplomatic channels. Therefore, the-prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee invited the Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif for an informal chat at the UN General Assembly in New York. The result of this was to inaugurate a Delhi-Lahore bus service, with Vajpayee travelling to Lahore from Amritsar by bus.

When this plan got lost during bureaucratic measures, Nawaz Sharif himself extended an invitation to Vajpayee to pay a visit to Lahore. Accepting it instantly, Vajpayee then visited Lahore between 20-21 February, 1999, during the inaugural run of the Delhi-Lahore bus service, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

Vajpayee was received by Sharif at the Wagah border on 20 February and a banquet in his honour was hosted by the latter at the Lahore Fort, on the same evening.

In a speech delivered at the Governor’s House in Lahore, Vajpayee said it was the destiny of India and Pakistan to end decades of hostility and progress towards peace and good-neighbourly feelings.

“This is a defining moment in South Asian history and we will be able to rise to the challenge. It is with a sense of elation I found myself on Pakistani soil after a gap of 21 years,” Vajpayee reportedly said.

At the conclusion of this historic summit, India and Pakistan signed the Lahore Declaration, a bilateral agreement and governance treaty that would be ratified later the same year by the Parliaments of both nations. As once stated 27 years prior in the Simla Agreement, the Lahore Declaration reiterated, among other things, that the Kashmir issue needed to be resolved bilaterally.

What Were the Terms of the Lahore Declaration?

Under the terms of the Lahore Declaration, both India and Pakistan reached a joint understanding to work towards peace and stability, as well as progress and prosperity for their citizens.

The treaty came at a crucial point in relations between the two countries, since both countries proved themselves as nuclear powers through public nuclear tests. It was also a major breakthrough in the process of improvement of the strained bilateral relations between the two countries.

Here are the main terms of the agreement:

• That India and Pakistan would intensify their efforts to resolve all issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
• Both countries would refrain from intervention and interference in each other's internal affairs.
• A reiteration that both nations were determined to implement the Simla Agreement “in letter and spirit” and that they would work towards intensifying their dialogue process for an “early and positive outcome of the agreed bilateral agenda”.
• In view of the fact that “nuclear dimension of the security environment of the two countries adds to their responsibility for avoidance of conflict”, immediate steps to be taken to reduce the risk of “accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons”, according to the Joint Statement issued.
• A reaffirmation of their commitment to achieve the goals and objectives of SAARC.
• A condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and reiteration of both nations’ determination to combat it.

While Vajpayee covered excellent ground in improving the India-Pakistan relationship in 1999 and the Lahore Declaration was widely lauded, relations between the two nations once again turned sour with the outbreak of the Kargil War in May 1999.

How Have India-Pakistan Relations Fared Since 1999?

Attempts at Improving Relations

Kargil was the first armed conflict between the two nations after they became established nuclear powers. Since then, there have been multiple attempts that came near being successful to bring about an understanding between India and Pakistan.

In 2001, at the invitation of Prime Minister Vajpayee, the then President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf visited India on 14-16 July for a historic two-day summit at Agra. However, talks broke down and a text of an agreement could not be arrived at.

In 2003, Musharraf called for a ceasefire during the LoC. India agreed to his proposition, bringing into effect a ceasefire agreement on 25 November, the first formal cease-fire since the insurgency began in Kashmir.

In September 2006, President Musharraf and then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, decided to put into effect an “India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations.”

In 2013, Pakistan President Nawaz Sharif and PM Manmohan Singh agreed they needed to stop the spate of attacks in Kashmir so that peace talks could move forward, according to a Guardian report.

In 2014, President Sharif was invited to attend newly elected PM Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony on 26 May. According to a NDTV report, Sharif arrived in Delhi, “carrying a message of peace”. He was the first ever Pakistani leader to do so. PM Modi held his first bilateral talk with President Sharif after this.

Later in December 2015, PM Modi made history by making a surprise stopover in Lahore on 25 December for a meeting with President Sharif, in what was the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian premier in more than 10 years. PM Modi also went on to attend President Sharif’s grand-daughter’s wedding at Raiwind.

Terror Attacks That Put Neighbourly Relations on the Back Foot

Despite several attempts to improve India-Pakistan relations, several terror attacks on India that were allegedly planned on Pakistani soil hampered efforts to do so.

In 2001, an attack by a group of gunmen took place on the Parliament in New Delhi, which left at least 12 people dead and 22 injured. In the midst of allegations that the suicide squad was carried out by Pakistan-sponsored terror outfits, relations between India-Pakistan deteriorated badly and led to a massive build-up of troops along the LoC.

On 11 July, 2006, multiple blasts on Mumbai's local trains killed over 180 people and left more than 800 people injured. It was said that Pakistani nationals and members of the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba were involved in the attack, and prosecutors alleged that the attacks were planned by Pakistan's Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008, when 166 people were killed and over 300 wounded was carried out by 10 terrorists—all Pakistani nationals. The attacks of became a watershed moment in India’s relationship with Pakistan, which never remained the same.

On 14 February, 2019, an attack, orchestrated by the Jaish-e-Mohammad group, killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force soldiers in Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan for the attack that was planned on Pakistani soil. India responded by carrying out the Balakot airstrikes on the terrorist camp in Pakistan. Tensions remained heightened between the two nations for the next few days as Pakistan captured an Indian IAF pilot, leading to impending fear over the outbreak of war.

(With inputs from BBC, Al Jazeera and The New York Times, The Hindu and The Indian Express.)