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Pakistan makes Kashmir concession

A BBC article claims “Pakistan is ready to put aside its demand for a referendum in the disputed territory of Kashmir, President Pervez Musharraf has said.”

“If we want to resolve this issue, both sides need to talk to each other with flexibility, coming beyond stated positions, meeting halfway somewhere,” General Musharraf said.

The Indian Government on Thursday issued a statement regarding Kashmir which made no reference to General Musharraf’s comments.

While any progress in resolving this decades long conflict must clearly be good news, I have to wonder whether this unilateral gesture will be taken as a starting point and grounds for negotiation, or if it will be seen as a concession of weakness like Gorbechev’s unilateral concessions of the 1980’s.