Top intelligence officials from India and Pakistan met and held secret talks in Dubai in January 2021 to calm the military tension over Kashmir, Reuters quoted sources as saying.
In its report, Reuters further claimed that Officials from India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) travelled to Dubai for a meeting facilitated by the United Arab Emirates government.
The Asian neighbours have had bitter ties after February 2019 when a suicide bomber killed at least 45 Indian military men in Kashmir in 2019 and India later sent warplanes to Pakistan.
In August, the same year, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi abrogated the special status of Jammu Kashmir, which provoked outrage in Pakistan and the downgrading of diplomatic ties and suspension of bilateral trade.
Reuters reported that the Government of the Asian neighbours’ have now re-opened backchannel diplomacy that aims at providing a roadmap to normalize ties over the next several months.
Following the January meeting, India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire along the Line of Control which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The two have also agreed to dial down their rhetoric over Kashmir, Reuters reported.
This would include Pakistan dropping its loud objections to 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.