No peace till Pak accepts borders won’t change, says Blackwill

Permanent Indo-Pak peace is possible only when the Pakistan military accepts that India will not secede any part of Jammu and Kashmir, forme...

Permanent Indo-Pak peace is possible only when the Pakistan military accepts that India will not secede any part of Jammu and Kashmir, former US envoy to India, Robert Blackwill has said.

‘‘India is not going to agree to a territorial change with respect to Kashmir. Period. As long as the Pakistani elite, especially its military elite, continues the mission that it had for half a century, no permanent peace between the two countries is possible,’’ Blackwill said in a speech at the Johns Hopkins University.

An ‘‘open border’’ between the two countries would reduce the issue of J&K ‘‘sovereignty’’, the former ambassador said. However, he said he saw no signs in the Pakistani military to suggest that they were anywhere near such a conclusion.

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‘‘If you doubt that, I invite you to read President Musharraf’s policy speech before the UN, which is a speech that could have been given 20 years ago,’’ he said.

Blackwill said New Delhi and Washington shared democratic values. He attributed Congressional criticism of the Bush-Manmohan Singh pact on civilian nuclear power to the mistaken notion among some people that the ‘‘agreement is a favour to India’’.

‘‘Actually, it is deeply in American interests and on its own merits. Congress is now trying to digest the implications of the US-India relationship,” he said. ‘‘But…maybe later this year or early next year, the agreement will be approved by the US Congress, though a lot of hard work needs to be done.’’