The nuclear weaponisation of India and Pakistan has brought about a qualitatively new situation on the sub-continent ... Now every major city in both countries is or could be under direct threat of nuclear annihilation. This is a prospect with which we ... will have to continue to live for decades unless there is some overall settlement between our two countries.
Neither the leaders nor the people of our two countries have really grasped the horrendous implications of a possible nuclear conflict ...
... Adventurism apart, it became clear during the cold war that a miscalculation, a malfunctioning computer, even a flight of geese showing up on the radar screen, could trigger off a disaster ...
The qualitatively new situation on the sub-continent calls for bold and innovative approaches, otherwise we are on the road to unimaginable disaster ... Countries like France and Germany, which were literally at each other's throats for centuries have now overcome their ancient animosities and partake of the tremendous advantages of economic and monetary union. Is it not possible for us to learn from this remarkable experience.
South Asia ... is among the poorest, most malnourished and most illiterate regions in the world. And yet vast resources are being poured into increasingly lethal weapons of mass destruction. If this continues ... the whole region could soon lapse into chaos and confusion ...
.. The leaders of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should, in their own enlightened self-interest, seriously consider setting up a Sub-Continent Confederation (SCC) in which, while each country will continue to enjoy sovereign powers ...
We are now opening our economies and markets to the developed world but not to each other, which makes no sense. The emergence of the Sub-Continent Confederation would also strengthen our position vis-a-vis the five permanent members of the United Nations, so that instead of cancelling each other out, our voices would acquire a major force in world affairs commensurate with the fact that we would constitute almost one quarter of the population of Planet Earth. Once the SCC begins functioning, the neighbouring Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, as well as the island nations of Sri Lanka and Maldives, may also in due course be interested to join, thus constituting an energised SAARC ... with huge common market that could one day develop into a force equivalent to the European Union.
A major element in the new arrangements would, of course, be a no-war and no-first-use nuclear pact between India and Pakistan.
As far as the complex problem of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, it certainly should move towards 'a final settlement" as envisaged in the Simla agreement ... In the new situation any territorial change without agreement is virtually impossible, and attempts by either side to do so by force, including prolonged cross-border militancy, could well lead to an armed conflict which in turn could escalate into a nuclear war.
Only in the context of a broader political framework will it be possible for an agreed solution to be reached on this longstanding conflict ...
As we hurtle towards the twenty-first century AD ... we see a new world in the process of being born. The paradigm I have suggested would enable us collectively to fulfil our destiny in creatively shaping the emerging global society, and in disproving the thesis of an inevitable clash of civilisations. (Source: The Hindustan Times, 11 July, 1998)