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India Signs Historic Peace Accord With Naga Rebel Group From Its Restive Northeast

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India’s government on Monday signed a landmark peace agreement with one of the major armed separatist groups based in its northeastern state of Nagaland, moving a significant step closer towards resolving one of the country’s longest-running internal conflicts.

Indian officials led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the accord with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) in New Delhi, Reuters reported.

The NSCN-IM is one of the largest militant groups fighting for an independent Naga homeland comprising parts of India’s northeast and neighboring Burma (officially known as Myanmar), from where they have been engaged in guerrilla warfare against successive Indian administrations since the 1950s.

Monday’s accord marks a resolution of peace talks between India and the NSCN-IM that began in 1997.

“We are making a new beginning today … 60 years is a long time of fighting, the wounds are deep,” Modi, standing alongside NSCN-IM secretary general and co-founder Thuingaleng Muivah, said in a press conference following the agreement.

Although the exact terms of the agreement have not yet been revealed, Modi’s government has spoken about a desire to develop and enhance infrastructure in the northeast, a region where perceived neglect is one reason behind the decades-long insurgency. A few other groups continue to battle with the government, while separatist movements in the disputed region of Kashmir to India’s north and a Maoist insurgency in parts of the country’s east remain active.

“Since becoming Prime Minister, peace, security and economic transformation of the northeast have been among my highest priorities,” Modi said. “Our oldest insurgency is getting resolved, it is a signal to other smaller groups to give up weapons.”

The true impact and implications of the accord will only be known once its details are revealed to the public. One of the main demands of groups like the NSCN-IM has been the creation of a sovereign Naga territory that includes Naga-inhabited parts of neighboring states like Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh as well as a portion of Burma across the international border, and leaders from those states have long been wary of any accord that would allow the annexation of parts of their land.

“I know that the Chief Ministers and political leaders of all three states neighboring Nagaland are watching this development very closely and with some concern,” Sanjoy Hazarika, Director of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university, said to TIME in an interview. “But there appears to be a subdued initial optimism, a cautious optimism about what [the accord] means.”

Hazarika says that the agreement, which he describes at this stage as more of a “preamble”, will most likely be a “broad framework of intent” that will set a time-frame for giving the long-running conflict a sense of closure.

“My own view is anything that increases the share and volume of peace in the region is not just welcome but is very much needed,” he said. “Anything that builds goodwill and not ill-will is also welcome, but these are things that will depend on the details of the accord.”

See The History of US—India Relations in 12 Photos

US ARMY BASE IN DINJAN,INDIA
1942: The US held loose relations with "The British Raj" before Indian independence. Yet the Western nation did maintain an Airfield base in Dinjan,India during this time. (Photo by Ivan Dmitri/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Ivan Dmitri—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Truman Greets Nehru
1949: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru takes his first trip to the US and meets with President Harry S. Truman in Washington, Oct. 11, 1949. PhotoQuest/Getty Images
Dwight Eisenhower, Jawaharlal Nehru
1959: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower makes the first official state visit to India’, joining Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at the Taj Mahal at Agra, India on Dec. 13, 1959.AP
A US plane dropping supplies to Indian troops, during the border war with Red China.
1962: The Kennedy Administration openly supported India during the Sino-Indian War. The US Air Force flew in arms and aid to Indian troops on the Chinese border, Nov. 1, 1962.Larry Burrows—The TIME & LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Richard Nixon, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
1973: In the early 70s, America's relationship with India deteriorated as the Nixon administration became close allies with Pakistan, viewing India as an ally of the Soviet Union. Here, President Nixon meets with Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan in the oval office of the White House in Washington on Sept. 18, 1973. AP
Jimmy Carter, Morarji Desai, Rosalynn Carter
1978: When the anti-Soviet Janata Party came to power in the late 70s, Indian relations with the US began to improve. President Jimmy Carter visited Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai in New Delhi in 1978.Charles Harrity—AP
Rajiv Gandhi;Ronald W. Reagan
1987: In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration began to provide limited aid to India and eventually defense technology such as combat aircraft and naval engines. President Ronald W. Reagan met with India's Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Washington on Oct. 1 1987.Diana Walker—The TIME & LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Indian Nuclear test site
1998: India began nuclear testing in Pokhran in 1998, despite strong condemnation from the US. President Bill Clinton imposed economic sanctions against India.T.C. Malhotra—Getty Images
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (
2005: After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the US worked closely with India to strategically monitor the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal to Singapore. Here, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Humayun's Tomb in New DelhiPrakash Singh—AFP/Getty Images
INDIA-ASIA-QUAKE-TSUNAMI
2004: The US and Indian navies cooperated on rescue efforts after the Dec. 2004 tsunami that affected the Indian subcontinent. AFP/Getty Images
US President Barack Obama inspects a gua
2010: India-US relations became strained during the Obama Administration due to its policies on insurgents in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pedro Ugarte—AFP/Getty Images
India's Prime Minister Modi speaks at Madison Square Garden in New York
2014: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at Madison Square Garden in New York City on his first visit to the US as Prime Minister, after his US visa had been revoked and reinstated. Lucas Jackson—Reuters

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Write to Rishi Iyengar at rishi.iyengar@timeasia.com