India Pak Should Make Peace Like Koreas

India and Pakistan should take a cue from Korea and resolve their differences and make peace in the region, Pakistan media reported on Sunday. Praising the patch-up between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South Korean President Moon Jae-in, an editorial in Dawn newspaper said that it was time for both the nations to walk on the path of peace.

According to news agency PTI, Dawn News said in its editorial, “Inevitably, a comparison between the renewed engagement between the two Koreas and the freeze in ties in the South Asian subcontinent will be made. The tensions and disputes between Pakistan and India are fundamentally different to the issues between the Koreas.”

During an inter-Korean summit on Friday, North and South Korea had agreed to pursue a permanent peace treaty and denuclearise the Korean peninsula.

The editorial added that Pakistan and India share the history and common dreams and aspirations of people with enduring cultural and other similarities, making the quest for normalization and peace in this region the noblest of goals.

It also said that while the responsibility of ensuring peace rests with Islamabad and New Delhi, the international community should come forward to support the two arch-rivals. The editorial further noted that the leadership of the two countries should keep their differences aside and work to restore peace.

In a major development, for the first time since Independence, arch-rivals India and Pakistan will be taking part in a multi-nation counter-terror exercise in Russia in September. The exercise will also be joined by China and several other countries. Last year the drill was suspended following a tense standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Doklam.

Continuous terror attacks by Pakistan had worsened relations between the nuclear-armed rivals. Indian and Pakistani troops are in close proximity in many places along with one of the world’s most heavily militarised frontiers, and exchanges of fire are not uncommon. The ties further worsened after Pakistan awarded death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav.