Roughly about 24 hours after military chiefs from India and Pakistan took the world by surprise last month with a joint commitment to respect a 2003 cease-fire agreement, the top United Arab Emirates diplomat came to New Delhi for a quick one-day visit.
The official UAE readout of 26th February 2021 meeting gave few clues of what Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed spoke about with Indian counterpart S Jaishankar, noting they discussed all regional and international issues of common interest and exchanged views on them.”
Yet behind closed doors, the India-Pakistan cease-fire marked a milestone in secret talks brokered by the UAE that started months earlier, according to officials aware of the situation. The next step will be both sides reinstating diplomats in New Delhi and Islamabad, who were pulled in 2019 after Pakistan protested India’s move to revoke seven decades of autonomy for the disputed Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir.
