The sudden one-day visit of UAE’s top diplomat to New Delhi last month, 24 hours after India and Pakistan shocked the world with a mutual commitment to withhold the ceasefire agreement of 2003, was majorly to negotiate the deal between the two countries, officials have disclosed now.
Though the UAE’s formal document of the matters taken up on February 26th‘s meeting included “discussion on all regional and international issues of common interest and an exchange of views on them”, the readout did not mention details and other subjects discussed by the Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
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Keeping the rest of the world ignorant about the progress, the UAE brokered the India-Pakistan ceasefire secretly with months’ long work, as per officials close to the matter who asked not to be named. One of them mentioned that this ceasefire is only the first step towards the accomplishment of a bigger and more concrete peace treaty between the two nations who possess nuclear weapons and have remained on bad terms since decades.
According to the official, the next move is to restore the envoys of both Pakistan and India in Islamabad and New Delhi. The countries had pulled back their respective diplomats in 2019 after India scrapped the special status for Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the difficult part remains talks on the resumption of trade and a final solution for Kashmir as it has continued to be a controversial topic for both parties since they got independence in 1947.
India and Pakistan are infamous for making peace deals and very quickly breaking them as well since ver. This time, officials said, the chances were low that the nations would go beyond reinstating their envoys and resuming trade from the Punjab border.
However, things paced faster during this attempt and marked the most solid effort taken in years. It began after the US’s Joe Biden sought a wider approach to discuss peace with Afghanistan, where Pak and US have fought for gaining victory.
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While PM Modi wants to pitch the military resources at the Chinese border, Pakistan is seeking to build better tied with the US.
India and UAE’s foreign ministries did not immediately respond to questions while Pakistan chose not to comment.
Pakistan had dropped hints of creating enhanced bonds with India last week after its army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa asked India “to bury the past and move forward” adding that the army was ready to initiate talks for resolving “all our outstanding issues.” The remarks arrived a day after PM Imran Khan had called Kashmir “the one issue that holds us back.”
To make things better and hinting at things getting warmer between the two neighbours, PM Modi posted a tweet last week wishing Imran Khan for a speedy recovery after he was tested positive for covid-19.
The UAE was amongst the only few countries who appreciated the ceasefire announcement, mentioning the “close historical ties” it shares with both the nations while also applauding “the efforts made by both countries to come to this agreement.” In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price changed the subject when asked to comment on the US’s role in this progress. He, however, stressed on Pakistan and urged it to look at the matters of Afghanistan, Kashmir and others.
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“Obviously Pakistan has an important role to play when it comes to Afghanistan and what takes place across its other border. So clearly, we will be paying close attention,” he said on February 25th.
