HE seven-day Tashkent talks between President Ayub Khan and Premier Shastri have achieved as much as they could possibly be expected to do in the context of the existing state of Indo-Pakistan relations. Only a few months ago the two countries found themselves locked in a full-scale military combat. Yesterday the two leaders were able, in spite of the bitterness engendered by the war and of fundamental divergences in their approach to the problems of a lasting peace in the Asian sub-continent, to identify the points on which they agreed and to incorporate these in a joint declaration. The talks have ended on a positive note. This is not as much as to say that the prescriptions offered by the Joint Declaration are adequate to the requirements of a very difficult situation or that they are capable of establishing, by themselves, lasting peace in the region. As President Ayub told the Soviet Press in an interview, the Tashkent Declaration had not gone as far as it should have done to resolve the Kashmir dispute, which was the basic problem that created stresses and strains between India and Pakistan. He rightly made it clear to the Soviet Press that genuine and lasting friendship between India and Pakistan could come only after a just solution of the Kashmir dispute and that his hope was that the Declaration would contribute to that end. This is indeed the crux of the matter.

Nevertheless, the President has rightly called this a good beginning and the Declaration does enable the two countries to make a start on the road leading to the normalisation of bilateral relations, but if the goal of genuine friendship is to be achieved it is necessary, as soon as the purposes of the declaration have been fulfilled, to concentrate on getting the explosive Kashmir issue out of the way.•