Free Four Indo-Pakistani Wars Essay Sample

India and Pakistan have strong historical, cultural, geographical and economic ties, but, despite this, the relations between two countries after having gained independence were constantly on the brink of war. The main cause of all these conflicts, with the exception of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, was the question of ownership of Kashmir. War makes a negative effect not only on bilateral relations between countries, but also on regional and global security. Since the appearance of the two countries on the world map, there were four major conflicts that made the greatest impact on the relations between the two countries.
The first significant conflict was the first Indo-Pakistani War, which is considered to be an armed conflict between India and Pakistan, which arose immediately after the partition of British India. The cause of the conflict was a dispute about the ownership of State Jammu and Kashmir, which was dominated by the Muslim population, but the ruler of Kashmir who was given the right to choose decided to accede to India. As a result of war, the territory of Kashmir was divided between the two states.
The second Indo-Pakistani War, which had the status of border war, occurred in August and September 1965, starting with an attempt to raise an insurrection in Pakistan on the Indian side of the disputed state of Kashmir. The war however did not reveal the winner. War ended in a draw after the intervention of the United Nations. As a result in January 1966 another diplomatic agreement was signed in Tashkent under the mediation of the USSR.
Third Indo-Pakistani War took place in December 1971 and was not tied with the problem of Kashmir. Cause of the war was the intervention of India in the civil war that took place in East Pakistan. As a result, after Pakistan suffered a heavy defeat, with the help of India East Pakistan gained independence and became known as Bangladesh. War of 1971 was the largest in a series of Indo-Pakistani conflicts. The relations between the three countries were normalized after signing the Simla Agreement in 1972, under which India and Pakistan pledged to resolve disputes peacefully.
Together with the three major conflicts Kargil War should also be mentioned. It was border armed conflict between India and Pakistan, which occurred in 1999. However, official Indian representatives in the conflict prefer not to use the word “war”, and the Pakistani side denies its participation in it, in some sources it is declared as a fourth Indo-Pakistani War.
Since then, short periods of reconciliation sometimes change for renewed hostility and provocations from both sides. The most famous of them is the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001, after which India accused Pakistan of supporting terrorists. However, last years an improvement has been seen in relations between Pakistan and India.
In conclusion, it should be mentioned that all these conflicts have had a bad influence on the political and economic relations in the region of Southern Asia. Firstly, permanent and ongoing conflicts and hostile relations between the two largest countries in the region affected the level of regional cooperation, the efficiency of regional integration projects. Secondly, they have threatened not only regional but also global security in connection with the presence of nuclear weapons of both Pakistan and India since 1974 and 1998. Thirdly, unresolved territory conflict between two parts causes a danger of terrorist’s attack, which take away a lot of people living in both countries.