Lahore Declaration
Encyclopedia
The Lahore Declaration was a bilateral agreement between India
and Pakistan
signed on February 21, 1999 by the then-Prime Minister of India
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
and the then-Prime Minister of Pakistan
Nawaz Sharif
at the conclusion of a historic summit in Lahore
, Pakistan. The Lahore Declaration signalled a major breakthrough in overcoming the historically strained bilateral relations between the two nations in the aftermath of the nuclear tests carried out by both nations in May 1998, but would soon lose impetus with the outbreak of the Kargil War
in May 1999.
and committed both nations to resolving bilateral disputes by peaceful dialogue and co-operation. Bilateral relations were transformed and tensions heightened when India conducted the Pokhran-II
— codename of nuclear tests on May 11 and May 13, 1998, establishing itself as a nuclear weapons power. Pakistan responded with its own nuclear tests — Codename Chagai-I
in Ros Koh area of Chagai Hills
on May 28, and Chagai-II on May 30th, bringing the spectre of nuclear conflict
to South Asia
.
On September 23, 1998 both governments signed an agreement recognizing the principle of building an environment of peace and security and resolving all bilateral conflicts, which became the basis of the Lahore Declaration. On February 19, 1999 the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee embarked on a historic visit to Pakistan, travelling on the inaugural bus service
connecting the Indian capital of New Delhi
with the major Pakistani city of Lahore
, establishing a major transport link for the peoples of both nations. The inaugural bus also carried Indian celebrities and dignitaries such as Dev Anand
, Satish Gujral
, Javed Akhtar
, Kuldip Nayar
, Kapil Dev
, Shatrughan Sinha
and Mallika Sarabhai
. He was received amidst great fanfare and media attention at the Pakistani border post of Wagah
by his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, with whom he had been at loggerheads a year before over the nuclear tests controversy. The summit was hailed worldwide as a major breakthrough and milestone in bilateral relations and a historic step towards ending conflict and tensions in the region.
(MoU) after three rounds of talks between the Indian and Pakistani leaders. In its content, both governments asserted their commitment to the vision of peace, stability and mutual progress and their full commitment to the Shimla Agreement and the Charter of the United Nations. Both governments recognized through the Lahore Declaration that the development of nuclear weapons brought added responsibility to both nations towards avoiding conflict and promoted the importance of Confidence-building measures, especially to avoid accidental and unauthorised use of nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan also decided to give each other advance notification of ballistic missile
flight tests and accidental or unexplained use of nuclear weapons to avoid the outbreak of a nuclear conflict.
The Lahore Declaration and the MoU incorporated a joint commitment to intensify efforts to resolve the Kashmir conflict
and other dispute, to enhance bilateral dialogue and to implement nuclear safeguards and measures to prevent conflict. Both governments condemned terrorism and committed to non-interference in each other's internal affairs and the objectives of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation and promote human rights
.
In the joint statement issued after the conclusion of the summit, both governments said that their foreign minister
s would meet periodically and consult each other on issues pertaining to the World Trade Organization
and information technology
. A two-member ministerial committee was to be established to investigate human rights issues, civilian detainees and missing prisoners of war. The Indian Prime Minister thanked his Pakistani counterpart and issued an invitation for a future summit in India.
The relations between the two nations were completely transformed at the outbreak of the Kargil War in May 1999, following the sudden revelation that Pakistani soldiers had infiltrated into Indian-administered Kashmir; the Indian Army
was deployed to evict the insurgents and retake capture the disputed territory. The two-month-long conflict claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers on both sides and brought both nations close to full-scale war and possible nuclear conflict. The conflict was followed by a military coup that overthrew the Nawaz Sharif regime and bringing the army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf, believed to be responsible for the Kargil incursion, to power, thus exacerbating doubts over the future of the relations between the two nations.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
signed on February 21, 1999 by the then-Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...
and the then-Prime Minister of Pakistan
Prime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
at the conclusion of a historic summit in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Pakistan. The Lahore Declaration signalled a major breakthrough in overcoming the historically strained bilateral relations between the two nations in the aftermath of the nuclear tests carried out by both nations in May 1998, but would soon lose impetus with the outbreak of the Kargil War
Kargil War
The Kargil War ,, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control...
in May 1999.
Background
The Lahore Declaration was the first major political agreement between the two nations since the 1972 Shimla Agreement that formally established peaceful relations in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
and committed both nations to resolving bilateral disputes by peaceful dialogue and co-operation. Bilateral relations were transformed and tensions heightened when India conducted the Pokhran-II
Pokhran-II
Pokharan-II refers to test explosions of five nuclear devices, three on 11 May and two on 13 May 1998, conducted by India at the Pokhran test range. These nuclear tests resulted in a variety of sanctions against India by a number of major states....
— codename of nuclear tests on May 11 and May 13, 1998, establishing itself as a nuclear weapons power. Pakistan responded with its own nuclear tests — Codename Chagai-I
Chagai-I
The Chagai-I was a codename referring to the five underground nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan at 15:15hrs in 28th May of 1998. It was named Chagai-I, as the tests were conducted in the Chagai District...
in Ros Koh area of Chagai Hills
Chagai Hills
The Chagai Hills is a range of granite hills in the Chagai District in Pakistan's Balochistan province.-Location:The Chagai Hills lie in a desert area in the northernmost part of Chagai District north of Pakistan's Ras Koh Hills and south of Afghanistan's Helmand and Nimruz provinces.- Topography...
on May 28, and Chagai-II on May 30th, bringing the spectre of nuclear conflict
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
to South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
.
On September 23, 1998 both governments signed an agreement recognizing the principle of building an environment of peace and security and resolving all bilateral conflicts, which became the basis of the Lahore Declaration. On February 19, 1999 the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee embarked on a historic visit to Pakistan, travelling on the inaugural bus service
Delhi-Lahore Bus
The Delhi–Lahore Bus, officially known as Sada-e-Sarhad , is a passenger bus service connecting the Indian capital of Delhi with the city of Lahore, Pakistan via the border transit post at Wagah. The bus was of symbolic importance to the efforts of the governments of both nations to foster peaceful...
connecting the Indian capital of New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
with the major Pakistani city of Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, establishing a major transport link for the peoples of both nations. The inaugural bus also carried Indian celebrities and dignitaries such as Dev Anand
Dev Anand
Dharam Dev Anand , better known as Dev Anand , is an Indian Hindi Cinema actor, director and film producer. Dev is the second of three brothers who were active in Hindi Cinema. His brothers are Chetan Anand and Vijay Anand. Their sister, Sheel Kanta Kapur, is the mother of renowned Hindi and...
, Satish Gujral
Satish Gujral
Satish Gujral is an Indian painter, sculptor, muralist, graphic designer and architect. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1999....
, Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar is a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed...
, Kuldip Nayar
Kuldip Nayar
Kuldip Nayar is a veteran Indian journalist and syndicated columnist, noted for his long career as a left-wing political commentator.-Early life and education:Nayar was born at Sialkot, Punjab, British India on 14 August 1923....
, Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj , better known as Kapil Dev, is a former Indian cricketer. He captained the Indian cricket team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup...
, Shatrughan Sinha
Shatrughan Sinha
Shatrughan Sinha is an Indian film actor and politician. Apart from being member of Rajya Sabha twice he was also Union Cabinet Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Shipping...
and Mallika Sarabhai
Mallika Sarabhai
Mallika Sarabhai is an activist and Indian Classical Dancer from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Daughter of Classical Dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and renowned Space Scientist Vikram Sarabhai, Mallika is an accomplished Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancer.-Early life:Mallika Sarabhai was born in...
. He was received amidst great fanfare and media attention at the Pakistani border post of Wagah
Wagah
Wagah is the only road border crossing between Pakistan and India , and lies on the Grand Trunk Road between the cities of Lahore, Pakistan and Amritsar, India. Wagah itself is a village through which the controversial Radcliffe Line was drawn. The village was divided by independence in 1947...
by his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, with whom he had been at loggerheads a year before over the nuclear tests controversy. The summit was hailed worldwide as a major breakthrough and milestone in bilateral relations and a historic step towards ending conflict and tensions in the region.
Content
The Lahore Declaration was signed on February 21 along with a memorandum of understandingMemorandum of understanding
A memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used in cases where parties either do not imply a legal commitment or in...
(MoU) after three rounds of talks between the Indian and Pakistani leaders. In its content, both governments asserted their commitment to the vision of peace, stability and mutual progress and their full commitment to the Shimla Agreement and the Charter of the United Nations. Both governments recognized through the Lahore Declaration that the development of nuclear weapons brought added responsibility to both nations towards avoiding conflict and promoted the importance of Confidence-building measures, especially to avoid accidental and unauthorised use of nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan also decided to give each other advance notification of ballistic missile
Ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...
flight tests and accidental or unexplained use of nuclear weapons to avoid the outbreak of a nuclear conflict.
The Lahore Declaration and the MoU incorporated a joint commitment to intensify efforts to resolve the Kashmir conflict
Kashmir conflict
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, the northwesternmost region of South Asia....
and other dispute, to enhance bilateral dialogue and to implement nuclear safeguards and measures to prevent conflict. Both governments condemned terrorism and committed to non-interference in each other's internal affairs and the objectives of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation and promote human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
.
In the joint statement issued after the conclusion of the summit, both governments said that their foreign minister
Foreign minister
A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
s would meet periodically and consult each other on issues pertaining to the World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
and information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
. A two-member ministerial committee was to be established to investigate human rights issues, civilian detainees and missing prisoners of war. The Indian Prime Minister thanked his Pakistani counterpart and issued an invitation for a future summit in India.
Aftermath
The Lahore Declaration was hailed warmly in both India and Pakistan and in the global media and by governments of other nations, forging optimism after the global tensions over the 1998 nuclear tests. The initiative bolstered the popularity of the Vajpayee government in India, cementing his standing as a statesman. However, it was speculated in the media that many in Pakistani military and intelligence agencies did not approve of the agreement and consequently worked to subvert it and escalate tensions between the two nations. The reception for Vajpayee, described as the leader of an "enemy nation," was boycotted by the military chiefs led by Gen. Pervez Musharaff, and terrorist attacks claiming the lives of civilians continued even as the summit was about to take place.The relations between the two nations were completely transformed at the outbreak of the Kargil War in May 1999, following the sudden revelation that Pakistani soldiers had infiltrated into Indian-administered Kashmir; the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
was deployed to evict the insurgents and retake capture the disputed territory. The two-month-long conflict claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers on both sides and brought both nations close to full-scale war and possible nuclear conflict. The conflict was followed by a military coup that overthrew the Nawaz Sharif regime and bringing the army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf, believed to be responsible for the Kargil incursion, to power, thus exacerbating doubts over the future of the relations between the two nations.