Saturday, September 24 2005 12:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Permanent Indo-Pak peace is possible only when the Pakistani military accepts that India will not secede any part of Jammu and Kashmir, former US envoy to New Delhi Robert Blackwill has said.

"India is not going to agree to a territorial change with respect to Kashmir. Period. As long as the Pakistani elite, especially its military elite, continues the mission that it had for half a century, no permanent peace between the two countries is possible," Blackwill said in a speech at the John Hopkins University's School for International Schools.

Observing that Indo-Pak relations were better today than anytime in history, he said an "open border" between the two countries would reduce the issue of 'sovereignty'.

"If there is peace between those two countries and there is an open border, the issue of sovereignty (in Jammu and Kashmir) would mean less and less," he said.

However, he said he saw no signs in the Pakistani military to suggest that they were anywhere near such a conclusion.

"If you doubt that, I invite you to read President Musharraf's policy speech before the UN, which is a speech that could have been given 20 years ago," he said.

Applauding the improved Indo-Pak ties, Blackwill said the US had nothing to do with the peace process kick started by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"America has nothing to do with that. It was begun by Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf responded to that while the US cheered from the sidelines," he said.