Reuters reported on Wednesday that officials of the intelligence agencies of India and Pakistan held secret talks in Dubai in January to calm tension over Jammu and Kashmir.
Ties between India and Pakistan had deteriorated in 2019 following the Pulwama suicide bomb attack and India's air strike on Balakot. The Narendra Modi government's move to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir had also angered Pakistan.
Reuters stated officials of India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had travelled to Dubai for the meeting that was facilitated by the government of the UAE.
Interestingly, in March this year, Bloomberg had reported that the UAE had "brokered" secret talks between India and Pakistan, which led to an agreement in February to strictly adhere to the mutual ceasefire on the Line of Control that was announced in 2003.
With respect to the latest report, Reuters claimed the two nations have "agreed to dial down their rhetoric". "This would include Pakistan dropping its loud objections to [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi abrogating Kashmir’s autonomy in August 2019, while Delhi in turn would refrain from blaming Pakistan for all violence on its side of the Line of Control," Reuters reported.
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“There is a recognition there will be attacks inside Kashmir; there has been discussions as to how to deal with it and not let this effort [be] derailed by the next attack,” Reuters quoted an official as saying.
Ayesh Siddiqa, a Pakistani defence analyst, told Reuters she believed such meetings had been held for "several months". “I think there have been meetings in Thailand, in Dubai, in London between the highest-level people,” Siddiqa told Reuters.
Cautious stance by India
An Indian official, who was unnamed, told Reuters about the reasons why the ongoing engagement with Pakistan was not being publicised.
"There is a lot that can still go wrong; it is fraught. That is why nobody is talking it up in public, we don’t even have a name for this; it’s not a peace process. You can call it a re-engagement,” the Indian official told Reuters.
