Recent nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan show the need for a political settlement amounting to some form of re-unification of the Indian Sub-continent, involving India, Pakistan (including Kashmir) and Bangladesh.
I suggest three possible models for such a political settlement, namely:
1. A federal or confederal solution on the basis of the model constructed in my book for a possible United Kingdom Federation involving the whole of the British Isles. This means that the federating units (in this case) India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will retain their membership of the United Nations and their role in foreign affairs to the extent indicated in chapter six of the book. There might be a co-ordinating machinery at the centre for their foreign policies.
2. A model of collaboration based on the European Union is proposed. The allocation of powers between the centre and the units will be governed by the principle of subsidiarity as contained in Article 3b of the Treaty of the European Union, 1993.
3. The third option would be the establishment of an Inter-governmental Council based on the model of the Anglo-Irish Inter-governmental Council to deal with the question of Kashmir and overall relations among India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The aim would be to achieve the level of collaboration that exists among the members of the European Union.
For a discussion on the problem of possible nuclear conflicts between India and Pakistan, please click on the title of my article on the subject.
Your comments and suggestions on these proposals are welcome. Please send them to the address below.
How to Avoid Nuclear War Between India and Pakistan
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