The Lahore Summit

In late 1998 and early 1999, Vajpayee worked towards a

diplomatic peace process with Pakistan.

The Delhi-Lahore bus service was inaugurated in February 1999 and Prime Minister Vajpayee travelled to Lahore by the bus. An attempt was made by Vajpayee now to begin a new peace process between India and Pakistan so as to permanently resolve the Kashmir dispute and other conflicts. At a summit at Lahore in February 1999, Prime Minister Vajpayee of India and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan signed the Lahore Declaration, espousing a commitment to dialogue, expansion of trade relations and mutual friendship, undertaking to refrain from intervention and interference in each other’s internal affairs, and expressing a commitment to take immediate steps for reducing the risk of accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons and discuss concepts and doctrines with a view to elaborating measures for confidence building in the nuclear and conventional fields, aimed at prevention of conflict, reaffirming their condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and their determination to combat this menace and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.