INDIA: Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan yesterday declared their 16-month peace process "irreversible". Yet even more significantly they vowed they would not allow terrorism to "impede" the thaw in relations between them.
A joint statement at the end of President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan's three-day visit to Delhi said the countries would open extra meeting points for divided families across the ceasefire line in war-torn Kashmir, boost trade and continue discussions "sincerely" to resolve the territorial dispute.
"I think the outcome has been better than I expected," President Musharraf told reporters before leaving Delhi for Manila.
However, he echoed Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's warning that settling the 58-year Kashmir dispute would take a long time, and would necessitate "out of the box " thinking to make the eventual outcome acceptable to India, Pakistan and Kashmiris.
Reading the joint statement with Gen Musharraf beside him, Mr Singh announced an agreement to increase the frequency of a bus service linking the two halves of Kashmir, and permitting trucks on the same route to promote trade.
Divided between Pakistan and India for 58 years, Kashmir is claimed by both. The two sides have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir. It has frequently been declared a "nuclear flashpoint" by the US and other western states.
Additional bus services will also begin in southern Kashmir between Poonch in the Indian zone and Rawalakot in Pakistan.
A similar service will "start soon" between the two Punjab provinces linking the border cities of Amritsar in India and Lahore.
A rail link between India's western desert state of Rajasthan and Sindh province in southern Pakistan, disrupted after the 1965 war, will also be re-established on new year's day as part of the confidence-building measures.
India and Pakistan will also reopen their consulates in the port cities of Bombay and Karachi before the year-end, and try to quickly resolve other long-standing territorial disputes.
These include the decades old disagreement over the Sir Creek estuary flowing into the Arabian Sea, and the military stand-off over the 21,000ft Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir bordering Tibet, better known as the world's "highest battlefield".
The Joint Economic Commission to boost business and trade between the neighbours will also be reactivated.
"Conscious of the historic opportunity created by the improved relations and the overwhelming desire of the peoples of the two countries for durable peace, (the two leaders) determined that the peace process was now irreversible," the statement said.
The visit by Delhi-born Gen Musharraf was originally intended as an informal trip to watch Pakistan play India in cricket on Sunday, a match Pakistan decisively won. It later turned into a summit.
Meanwhile Muslim insurgent groups waging war since 1989 in Kashmir for independence have accused Gen Musharraf of selling out to India.
"Musharraf has agreed to a sell-out on Kashmir in return for trade, tourism and cultural ties with India," declared a joint statement by four groups who have threatened the bus service between the halves of Kashmir.
India accuses Pakistan of fuelling the Kashmiri insurgency that has claimed over 60,000 lives, an allegation that Islamabad has tacitly conceded but more recently promised to end all support to rebel groups.
It also enforced a ceasefire on the Kashmir frontier in November 2003, a precursor to the peace initiative launched two months later in January 2004.