 Good afternoon and welcome, all of you, thank you so much for joining us today for this event on India-Pakistan relations. And special welcome to those of you who are tuning in online to our webcast. My name is Mohit Yusuf. I work on Pakistan issues at the Institute. I just wanted to take a couple of minutes and introduce our program before I hand it over to our Executive Vice President to introduce Congressman McDermott. USIP's Pakistan program is multifaceted and it extends beyond research-based analysis, which we do regularly. But we have got a lot of programmatic activities, which is part of our mandate at USIP. Our research feeds directly into our projects on the ground in Pakistan. And we, for instance, one of our projects at this point, we conduct trainings of conflict management facilitators, people who go out in communities and take on dispute resolution across Pakistan. We've been doing this since 2009 and have been seeing positive results come out of that. We are also facilitating and promoting dialogues between communities, fractured communities in conflict-ridden zones in Pakistan, as well as high-level policy, track-to-dialogues between Pakistan and India, there are at least two that we are supporting at this point. We're also involved in projects which aim to counter extremist narratives and in peace education activities. We've had recently a rather unique achievement. We produced a textbook on peace education, which is now being taken up by the Islamic seminaries, the madrasas in Pakistan. And the textbook has been written by scholars from across various sects in Pakistan. So that's one of the examples of our actual programmatic work, where the madaris are now actually using some of the textbooks that we've produced. We're also getting involved in media to inject content on peace-building and counter extremism in Pakistan. We've got a fairly large grants program, which supports civil society organizations who are working in areas which are priorities for USIP. And so we've got a fairly holistic presence, both in terms of research and seminars, which of course, most of you, I'm sure, keep on attending and also get information for in your inbox, but also the other side of our work, which is based in Pakistan itself. Today's event, I think, is a classic example of USIP using a problem-solving lens when looking at issues of conflict, major conflict around the world. We try and address the how-to rather than what has happened in the past questions as you'll see from our panelists today. Also I think this is an example of USIP developing synergies and bringing back people who are part of policy and programmatic work between Pakistan and India. Two of our panelists, Ambassador Lalit Mansingh and Ambassador Shamshad Ahmed, both former foreign secretaries from India and Pakistan respectively, are part of something called the Ottawa Dialogue, which is a senior-level track to process that USIP is supporting between the two countries. And we just had a very productive meeting last week of that process. This particular event, of course, focuses on a critical issue, the Pakistan-India conflict, which has been there for the past 63 years. And while we've focused much on Afghanistan in the past decade in this town, I think there's hardly anybody who believes that US interests in South Asia can be achieved or stability can come to the region unless Pakistan and India are able to normalize their relationship. And thus, I'm pleased that we are here focusing on this issue and have an eminent list of speakers who are going to be speaking to us today. Not only experts in the subject, but also practitioners who spent a lifetime dealing with this issue. Very quickly, just let me run through the sequence of what follows. We'll have an introductory keynote by Congressman Jim McDermott, who will be introduced shortly. After that, our first panel focuses on the key challenges between Pakistan and India, the obstacles as they move forward, looking at issues like terrorism, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and then a panel on opportunities, which we term the underrepresented or underexplored dimension. The economic cooperation between the two sides. And what better day to talk about this than when a Pakistan official today has reportedly stated at a SAAC meeting that Pakistan has agreed to provide India the most favored nation status, which is one of the biggest obstacles in the economic cooperation. So without further ado, I want to pass it on to our Executive Vice President, Tarar Sonan Shah, to introduce the congressman. Thank you, Mohid, and thank you also to Ambassador Bill Taylor, who oversees all of the conflict management work here. And to all of you for your continued interest in our work, and particularly as it relates to India-Pakistan. I have the great privilege today of introducing a man who is not only a serious congressional leader but a serious foreign policy buff, which is a great combination from where we are. Congressman McDermott is serving his 12th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, he is the ranking member of the Trade Subcommittee, also on the Human Resources Subcommittee and the Oversight Subcommittee. So he is a busy man, and getting his time today as a keynote was not easy, but we are delighted he could do this. In terms of foreign policy, Congressman McDermott's interest traces back to the late 1960s, where he served in the United States Navy as a psychiatrist. And I think in Washington right now, having a psychiatrist might be a very good thing. For 15 years of serving in the Washington State Legislature, Congressman McDermott left politics to serve as a Foreign Service Medical Officer in Congo, where he provided psychiatric services to members of the Foreign Service, USAID, and Peace Corps personnel throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. So his unique experience in developing countries has informed his views on the critical role the United States government can play in helping countries lift themselves out of poverty, build global coalitions, and address global challenges. Congressman McDermott has traveled widely, as all of you know, throughout South Asia, having visited every state in India and traveled to Pakistan on several occasions. He is one of the founders of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, which also remain one of the largest country caucuses in the House of Representatives. So I asked for you to join me in a very, very warm welcome for Congressman Jim McDermott. Thank you very much. Okay, we'll start by using a mechanism they use at the United Nations. All protocols having been observed, we welcome all of you here, rather than going down the row here with all the folks who are here. It's a real pleasure to be invited to speak here on something related to normalization of India and Pakistan relations. I was sitting, it just came to me while I was sitting here. I've actually been on a trip with David Bonnier. One day we were sitting on the floor of the house and he said, I know about Pakistan, you know about India. Why don't we go over there so you can figure out how to fix Kashmir? Well, sometimes children's crusades don't work out perfectly, but I've been involved in looking at these issues for a very long time. I am not quite correct in my introduction. I've only been in those states that the Indian government will let me go to. I have not been to Nagaland and Assam and some of the places up in the northeast, which are a little more conflictual, then I remember Siddhartha Ray was the ambassador some years ago and I said to him, can I go to Kashmir? He said, of course you can. I was governor there and I'm sure nothing will happen to you. So I went and I was surrounded by soldiers. So I've been in these places and seen what people are struggling with. And I want to congratulate Tara Sonoshine for and the rest of the Institute for this wonderful new facility. It's the first time I've been in it. I came a little early today so I could walk around and kind of get a feeling for it because I've looked at it from the outside and it is wonderful to finally have a US government institution with the word peace in its name. A permanent institution built to resolve and to manage conflict is long overdue and very welcome. Now that I feel a little uneasy being the keynote address. I feel like the appetizer because you're going to get the meat and potatoes from the next two panels. You're going to have some really good, very knowledgeable people to talk about these issues. But let me give you some of my own thoughts about it. The first panel on challenges to normalization hits a central point. India and Pakistan have very serious issues to resolve water, energy, managing their borders, cashmere, terrorism. Just to name a few, how these countries manage these in the 21st century in my view is going to be central to what happens in the world. If you come to my office you'll find India is right there on the wall and Pakistan and Turkmenistan and the stands and Burma and all the rest and all the way to Iran. That part of the world in my view is where the focus of an awful lot of what happens in the next hundred years is going to be. And how it resolves between Pakistan and India is really kind of central to that. Now when I think about conflict and confrontation, it seems to me from a psychiatric point it becomes almost habitual sometimes the kind of relationship we have with one another. Generals are often fighting the last war and some of the biggest problem is to get people, to really think as you're trying to do today about where we can go from here. Part of the challenge on both sides is that hardliners on both sides have dug in after looking at three wars and a very troubled history. And for generations and quite frankly it can be hard to turn from any position that you've defended for so long when you get sort of ground in it's really hard to get people to come up out of the ruts and start talking about another way to think. Now the first step it seems to me always has to be talking. And I think the Pakistanis and the Indians deserve a lot of credit for doing that. They've pushed through cycles of engagement, crisis and re-engagement, often over loud protests from the folks back home. And I can't emphasize how important it is to keep people at the table. I don't think you can resolve anything by setting preconditions and saying well we don't get those while we're not coming to the table. You come to the table, everything's on the table, it has to be there and I think that's the only way. I remember a story about President Eisenhower who probably put it best about his frustrations of talking with the Kid Khrushchev. He said, quote, the basis of mistrust was not suspicion of Mr. Khrushchev. It was a problem of national psychology and popular feeling. And he went on to talk about the fact that every time he talked to Khrushchev he was really talking to the people behind him. And when Khrushchev talked to him he was talking to the people behind him. So that although they could have resolved things themselves, it was very hard in a political atmosphere to actually have an open conversation in which you talk about the problems and what are the reasonable ways out of it. Now some of you may know I have many Indian friends and many Pakistani friends dating back to the 91 as you heard. When I founded the caucus on India I went there originally to look at the AIDS epidemic because I'd just come from Africa. I'd spent, I'd been in every country south of the equator 26 embassies and seen the epidemic and what was happening. And I said to the speaker when I got there, you're going to have a real problem in the world because of this epidemic. And he gave me really essentially a free pass to go. And the first country I went to was Thailand and then to India in 91. And it struck me when I got there, there were no Americans, there were no American businesses. Then I talked to the ambassador and he said, you know, you should go home and start an India caucus because things are changing here. This is right after the wall fell and the Indians were disengaging themselves from the Soviets and the Pakistanis were our good close buddies and it was a very tumultuous time. And so it was a very interesting time to come in and see and I now have watched India go from 1990 to 2011 and the changes there are remarkable. What Mohan Singh did as the finance minister and now I think he will go down in history as being one of the most important Indian politicians that ever was in the country. And I think the things he's been able to do have been really remarkable. Now the dialogue between the countries has gone on and it's had its fits and starts and certainly Vajpayee was, Prime Minister Vajpayee was one. There were many who have been back and forth in this thing trying to get it going. And the foreign secretaries Salman Bashir and Mr. Rao deserve a lot of credit for their tenacity today in continuing the dialogue and looking for ways to implement confidence building contacts between the countries. And while Secretary Rao has now been tapped to become the US ambassador to the United States I hope that these talks will continue on a regular basis uninterrupted. I hope that that Indian government continues right on with this whole connection to dealing with Pakistan. Because only through dialogue can we hope for resolutions to resolve the relatively modest issues if you want to call them that. The session glacier issue dubbed the world's highest battlefield where most of the soldiers died from the weather and from the war. I mean it was those kinds of things we ought to be able to resolve by talking to one another. Last year I had an engineer, the American Academy of Mechanical Engineers as fellows and they gave a fellowship to a 78-year-old man who showed up in my office and said could I be your fellow and I said sure come on in. I always can learn from somebody and I'll send you out to do stuff. He said what do you want me to study and I said water and he said fine I've done water projects all over the world and in my state of Washington and the American West we argue over a lot of stuff but when you want to get down to a real argument let's talk about water rights and it is increasingly in my view the issue that is going to overwhelm the world and certainly what's happening in the Himalayas is going to become an issue of major proportions in Indian-Pakistan relations. Now the Indus Waters Treaty is an amazing accomplishment. It really has gone on for a very long time, 50 years, 3 wars but generally it's worked out between the two countries. It has been a mechanism that has worked pretty well but since I had some questions and I had just discovered this Indus Treaty I never knew it existed until I started in looking at this year. I thought well I'll get the Indians to come in and tell me how they think it's working and I'll get the Pakistanis to come in and tell me how it's working. My staff made some calls and I realized I had stepped into something I didn't really realize. We got some answers and we got some very angry responses from some people who said look we've been handling ourselves we don't need you Americans sticking your congressional nose into our problems or our processes and we were a little bit worried that we'd stepped into something more than we could handle but in the end it worked out but those issues are going to require people talking continually. You can see already the Chinese are trying to siphon off some water for the Bama Putra and irrigate land up in China and you've got things going on and this is going to be an issue that I think there needs to be some real talk about what happens. Over the years I've talked to Indian and Pakistani diplomats about the cost of conflict, the time, the energy and the resources spent on being at odds with one another and got universal agreement that the opportunity cost is overwhelming. That's what got David and I to going over there was thinking if we could just get these people to quite fight each other they could have more money to develop their countries and we could see that if they were putting their energies into political solutions rather than to military solutions and quit spending money on weapons and spend it more on development they would be much better off in the long run and besides which two nuclear powers sitting next to each other cannot be seriously thinking about using those weapons. If there's any rationality left in the world because the drifting of clouds and all of what can happen simply makes it in my view there ought to be a way to negotiate that kind of thing to stand still. Now for all of this to happen India needs a stable partner Pakistan and I think as we look at Pakistan it's been a very up and down situation over the course of the last number of years and to have this relationship and the style of work India has to continue to deal with their problems. One of the things I keep pointing out to people about the United States is that a democracy is an evolutionary process that never stops. If you look at the United States in 1789 and look at us today well you'd say why aren't these other countries going that route well they're getting there in their own way. I mean we started with slaves women have votes for 130 years I mean we and the Indians started with women having votes from the start and they had a women prime minister like that so the issue of how a democracy moves forward I think is one of those issues that really we have to be tolerant of the way other people are getting to where they're going. We can encourage them but we can't tell them this is the way it's got to be because God knows ours has our own problems. When you think I still carry a 10,000 rupee note or a thousand rupee note in my pocket with the 17 official languages because I show it to people every time they tell me we got problems in the United States I say well look at this these people make a goal of it with 17 official languages and six major religions and and the religious issues as you can see are ones that we are going to have. Now I think in our relationship with with Pakistan we the Americans need to stop sending mixed segments about our commitment toward peace especially with Pakistan with whom we have managed our bilateral relations pretty badly. We were very close to them at one point and then we sort of moved away from them and then and now we've got all this stuff going on around Afghanistan. I really think the term AFPAC ought to be dropped from our lingo because it perpetuates the perception that the only thing the United States is caring about is terrorism counter-terrorism that that's where all the terrorism is is over there because of that AFPAC thing well for us to use that kind of a term really doesn't isn't helpful in my view of working things out and we really have to help the civilian government of Pakistan be stable and and begin the development and I think that that is one of the issues that I hope your your panel will talk a little bit about now the second panel will take on the topic of how to normalize and the unrealized value of economic cooperation in the mix. How do you how do you do this? Years ago I started when I came back from Africa to the Congress with Sub-Saharan Africa and struck me that there was no trade policy for Africa so I said why not we got 800 million people over here with nothing we got all this with Asia and we got all this stuff with my staff says shut up get out of here okay they're voting here in a little bit but let me just the this we started out with the ambassadors talking we got all 25 ambassadors of Africa to come to my office and sit down and talk about trade and it was not easy and it was hard to get something to the Congress and if I took the president going to Africa to begin to get get things going but in the 21st century a lot of folks are thinking about this in a new way and if we share the same economic interests it's war and conflict that we can't afford can't afford that anymore and we have to begin thinking about how we move in that direction and I believe India and Pakistan can ensure peace by making war on something that the middle class can't stand for when you can get the middle class in your country to say we stop this we want to have the economics work then you have moved to a place that I think will go a long way toward resolving the problems now recently I went to the last of the states I hadn't been in India was to Orissa and things are developing rather quickly there and the same is true in Gujarat there are a number of places where it's happening and the cross-border things just have to begin to be dealt with and I the port of Guajar in in Pakistan has a real opportunity to be an interesting place of a focus for what happens economically India and Pakistan are both gateways and to this whole of the stands and the whole of central Asia and I've been a fan of building the pipeline from Guajar up through Pakistan and Afghanistan up to Turkmenistan and bring it bring all that gas down it's tough how you'll keep it safe enough to have a pipeline how wide will the the pant the path be that you've got to protect the pipeline is estimated to cost 7.6 billion dollars and there people are talking about signing an agreement to be done by 2016 all of this is possible if people are talking to one another and I want to go to one last thing that I discovered in looking at this which I hadn't known about and that's this whole business of fishermen fishermen go out from the coast of India and Pakistan and who knows where the border is right so you fall over the border on this side and you get into trouble and you go to jail and you fall over the water on this side those kinds of things can people been spending months and years in jail poor fishermen those kinds of things can be resolved by by talking and I personally think that the way forward is on an incremental basis of finding things where in the terms of the guys from Harvard the getting to yes something that you agree on something I agree on if we agree on it then how do we get to where we want to go and it's possible to do if people are talking and that's what's really exciting about seeing all of you here today and I am going to go run and vote and I was representatives thank you