India and Pakistan exchanged a volley of tough words against each other in the SAARC Summit in Dhaka casting serious doubts on the success of the ongoing peace process and attempts to bring an end to the 6-decade long rivalry.



Speaking to newsmen as the SAARC meeting drew to a close, Pak PM Shaukat Aziz said; ‘’There is clearly a trust deficit between the two countries’ and reiterated that the core issue of the dispute was Kashmir.



Indian PM Manmohan Singh made oblique references to Pakistan and Bangladesh on continuing to sponsor and harbour terrorists against India and called for an end to this. He rejected Pakistan’s proposal to demilitarize Kashmir saying; ‘It is out of question as long as terrorist activities come to a complete halt and life gets back to normal in the valley’. He also said that countries must change their mindsets to allow free trade between the SAARC members and allow overland rights to countries exporting or importing goods from a third country. Pakistan rejected India’s request for overland rights in Pakistan for transition of good to Afghanistan and Bangladesh is not too keen on opening up its borders for Indian goods to reach the northeastern states and Burma.



It was only too predictable that this would happen and the SAARC will remain a non-functional entity as long as mindsets of hostile countries don’t change. Countries like Bangladesh don’t realize that with a friendly policy towards India, it stands to gain many folds more than India would gain in terms of trade and commerce etc. As far as Pakistan is concerned, its future is a doggone conclusion. It is trapped in a quagmire from where it can only sink further till it becomes a failed state like Afghanistan and disintegrate.



News : Khaleej Times



Also read about inclusion of China as an observer as demanded by Nepal on Paramendra Bhagat’s blog and the coverage of SAARC Summit by the Western media by Addabaj in his blog