Pakistan has offered to jointly declare peace with India in Kashmir.
Already both countries have promised to end hostilities along their disputed frontier.
It is time for Pakistan and India to "bury the past and move forward," Pakistan's army chief of staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa said Thursday. Peace between the two nuclear neighbors with combined armed forces of more than 20 million will help "unlock" the potential of South and Central Asia."
But "our neighbor will have to create a conducive environment, particularly in Kashmir," Bajwa said. Any effort to improve ties without addressing Kashmir would be vulnerable to external political factors.
India controls about half the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan controls a third of the region and its two provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
"The Kashmir issue is at the heart of this," Bajwa said. "It is important to understand that without the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through peaceful means the process will always remain susceptible to derailment to politically motivated bellicosity."
Bajwa "hopes" U.S. President Joe Biden can help make peace in Kashmir. Prime Minister Imran Khan has made a similar statement. Khan said India would benefit economically by making peace with Pakistan. Peace will allow India to directly access the resource-rich Central Asia region through Pakistani territory.
"India will have to take the first step," according to Khan. "Unless they do so, we cannot do much."
