Lahore Declaration

The Lahore Declaration was a bilateral agreement and governance treaty signed between India and Pakistan on 21 February 1999 in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, Pakistan. The signing of the declaration took place at the conclusion of a historic summit in Lahore, and was ratified by the parliaments of both countries the same year. Under the terms of the treaty, a mutual understanding was reached towards the development of atomic arsenals and to avoid accidental and unauthorised operational use of nuclear weapons. The Lahore Declaration brought added responsibility to both nations' leadership towards avoiding nuclear race, as well as both non-conventional and conventional conflicts. This event was significant in the history of Pakistan and it provided both countries an environment of mutual confidence. In a much-covered televised press conference in both countries, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee signed the treaty. It was the second nuclear control treaty signed by both countries and pledged to continue the use of the first treaty, NNAA, was signed in 1988. The Lahore treaty was quickly ratified by the parliaments of India and Pakistan and came into force the same year. The Lahore Declaration signalled a major breakthrough in overcoming the historically strained bilateral relations between the two nations in the aftermath of the publicly performed atomic tests carried out by both nations in May 1998. Widely popular in the public circles in Pakistan and hailed by the international community, the relations would very soon lose impetus after infiltration of Pakistan forces into Kargil, which led to the outbreak of the 1999 Indo-Pakistan War in May 1999.