Shimla Agreement

Donald Trump`s offer to help India and Pakistan resolve the Kashmir issue became a major controversy after India rejected the US president`s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested it. As the U.S. government tries to downplay Trump`s remarks by calling the Kashmir issue “bilateral” to “discuss India and Pakistan,” the focus has shifted again to previous “bilateral agreements,” whose 1972 Simla Agreement (or Shimla Agreement), signed by then-Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto , for friendly relations between the two countries. This agreement, commonly known as the Simla Pact, was born out of the 1971 war between the two countries over developments in the eastern wing of Pakistan. The aim of the agreement was to define the principles that should govern their future relations. It also provided for measures to be taken to further normalize bilateral relations. Most importantly, it forced the two countries to “resolve their differences through bilateral negotiations by peaceful means.” On 29 August 1972, the two chief negotiators Parmeshwar Narain Haksar (India, Parmeshwar Narain Haksar) and Aziz Ahmed of Pakistan signed the final agreement between India and Pakistan, the summit between Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The important part of the agreement included Pakistan`s recognition of Bangladesh. Other issues were discussed: the repatriation of refugees to India and the release of Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals stranded in both countries. Pakistan has agreed to host an unspecified number of bihari Muslims from Bangladesh. Pakistan has also agreed to send back to Bangladesh nearly 150,000 to 200,000 Bengali citizens of the new nation-state of Bangladesh. What the Simla agreement did not achieve for India could have been achieved through the 1973 Delhi Agreement, signed by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It appears that a tacit agreement on the release of Pakistani prisoners of war was reached in early 1972, since Bhutto overturned the death sentence handed down by Sheikh Mujibur Rehman on 8 January 1972.

The sheikh took over as Prime Minister of Bangladesh on 10 January 1972. The United States declared Bangladesh sovereign on April 4, 1972. This laid the groundwork for the Shimla agreement. However, Pakistan officially recognized Bangladesh on 22 February 1974 and China on 31 August 1974. The Simla agreement reads as a communiqué rather than a peace agreement with a country that had waged war on India. Nothing in the agreement has put Pakistan in a state of good behaviour in the future. It also contained some ridiculous expectations, such as the clause that required both governments to “take all measures within their power to prevent hostile propaganda against each other.” Recalling his agreement of 23 September 1998 that an environment of peace and security is in the supreme national interest of both sides and that the resolution of all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, is essential to this end.