DUBAI/WASHNGTON – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is mediating between India and Pakistan to help the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals reach a “healthy and functional” relationship, says the top Emirati envoy to the United States.
Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba said in a virtual discussion with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on Wednesday that the UAE played a role “in bringing Kashmir escalation down and created a ceasefire, hopefully ultimately leading to restoring diplomats and getting the relationship back to a healthy level”.
“They might not sort of become best friends but at least we want to get it to a level where it’s functional, where it’s operational, where they are speaking to each other,” he said.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported citing high-level officials that top intelligence officers from India and Pakistan held secret talks in Dubai in January in a new effort to calm military tension over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Officials from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external spy agency, travelled to Dubai for a meeting facilitated by the United Arab Emirates government, the report said.
Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan, both of which claim all of the region but rule only in part.
Turkey is due to host a peace summit for Afghanistan from April 24 to May 4 meant to jump-start efforts to end the war and sketch out a possible political settlement.
