ISLAMABAD — Pakistan and India signed a new visa agreement Saturday that makes cross-border travel easier, the latest sign of thawing relations between two nuclear-armed countries that have long seen each other as enemies.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar announced the agreement during a news conference in Islamabad with her Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna. Both spoke positively about the momentum in reducing tension between the countries.
“Today there is a deep commitment from both political leaderships to ensure that the narrative that we build for our future generations is that of looking at this relationship with a different lens,” Khar said.
But Krishna’s three-day visit to Pakistan, which ends Sunday, has not produced any breakthroughs on the major conflicts between the two neighbors, including Islamist militancy and the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Pakistan and India have been at odds ever since they were both carved out of British India in 1947 amid religious bloodshed on both sides. Pakistan was formed as a Muslim-majority state, while the predominant religion in India is Hinduism. They have fought three major wars, including two over Kashmir.
Relations reached a recent low point in 2008 when Pakistan-based militants killed more than 160 people in the Indian city of Mumbai. Indian officials accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of supporting the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba that is blamed for the attack — an allegation denied by Islamabad.
Despite the disagreement over the Mumbai attack, relations between the countries have improved somewhat over the past two years, especially with respect to trade.
