The joint statement issued by India and Pakistan on the ceasefire agreement between their top military commanders comes months after national security adviser Ajit Doval and his counterpart in Islamabad began indirect talks to ensure peace throughout the borders, people familiar with the matter said.
NSA Doval and Moeed W Yusuf, special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Division of National Security and Strategic Policy Planning, have communicated directly and through interlocutors in the intelligence community, confirmed a person familiar with the negotiations.
The joint statement is the first outcome of these talks that included at least one face-to-face meeting in a third country, the person quoted above said. It added that only a small group of senior government leaders, including Union Interior Minister Amit Shah, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, were aware of the details of the talks. .
Thursday’s joint statement, issued in New Delhi by the Defense Ministry, said that the general directors of military operations (DGMO) of the two armies had agreed to “strict compliance with all agreements, understandings and cessation of shooting throughout of the Control Line “starting Wednesday at midnight.
The two top commanders also “agreed to address each other’s core issues and concerns that have a propensity to disturb the peace and lead to violence.”
This is certainly not the first time that the two senior army officers have agreed to keep the peace along the border. They signed a similar pact in 2018 when they pledged to strictly adhere to the terms of the 2003 ceasefire understanding in letter and spirit.
Officials said Thursday’s joint statement could be the first of many steps the two countries can take over the next few months to normalize relations, one step at a time.
National security planners said there were five developments over the past month that indicated a nuanced shift.
The first sign that the secondary channel talks were on track came earlier this month. Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, in stark contrast to his strident speech against India after the Balakot airstrike in 2019, spoke on February 2 of Islamabad’s commitment to what he called the ideal of mutual respect. and peaceful coexistence and said: “it is time to extend a hand of peace in all directions.”
Next were the attenuated statements that emerged from Islamabad three days later, on February 5, which is observed by the Pakistani establishment as the Day of Solidarity with Kashmir. “I found it unusual,” said a counterterrorism official who was unaware of the secret talks.
At the same time, the official said there has been a decrease in ceasefire violations along the border in Jammu and Kashmir in recent weeks.
A senior government official said that Gen Bajwa’s highly publicized peace proposal, the decline in ceasefire violations and Pakistan’s muted rhetoric were linked to the quiet talks that had taken place.
The fourth sign of a possible thaw in relations was that Pakistan stayed out of the Kashmir issue at last week’s Saarc meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Faisal Sultan, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special assistant on health, limited himself to the issue at hand, a stark contrast to Pakistan’s earlier attempt to raise the Kashmir issue at the Saarc meeting in March last year.
The fifth indicator, an official said, was New Delhi’s gesture to allow Imran Khan’s special plane to use Indian airspace en route to Sri Lanka on Tuesday. Prime Minister Khan’s Pakistani Air Force jet flew along the coast of India and over the Lakshadweep archipelago before landing in Colombo.
The decision to allow the special flight to use its airspace stands in stark contrast to Pakistan’s action in 2019, when Islamabad denied permission for the use of Pakistani airspace for three Indian VVIP flights.
In September 2019, Pakistan did not allow the use of its airspace by a special flight carrying President Ram Nath Kovind to Europe, and another flight in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to the United States to attend the session of the UN General Assembly. Pakistan also did not allow the use of its airspace by another VVIP flight during Modi’s visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2019.
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