The rhetoric surrounding last weekend's summit meeting between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, could hardly have been grander. The vehicle for the consultations -- the inauguration of the first bus service between the two countries in 51 years -- was held out as a breakthrough in South Asian diplomacy. And, indeed, the results of the meeting were positive. But to call the summit the most significant round of regional diplomacy since 1972 only highlights the abysmal state of relations between the two countries.
The symbolism surrounding the meeting was powerful. Mr. Vajpayee's visit to the minar-I-Pakistan monument, which commemorates the Muslim League's 1940 decision to create a separate Muslim state, was designed to signal acceptance of Pakistan's political legitimacy by both India and the prime minister's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Since India's own political legitimacy is based on the idea of a multiethnic state, the gesture should not be lightly dismissed. The willingness of both prime ministers to issue a document speaks to their seriousness, too. And most reports speak of a genuine rapport between the two men.
The Lahore Declaration itself is being compared with the Simla Declaration, issued in 1972, the year after the two countries clashed over Bangladesh. This new document commits the two governments to begin talks on security that will help ease the tensions that spur their rivalry. Among other things, that means upgrading the talks currently being held to the ministerial level. In addition, the two sides pledged to give advanced warning before conducting ballistic missile tests, to take immediate steps to cut the chances of accidental nuclear war, as well as to "intensify efforts" to resolve the outstanding issues between them.