Key points
- Pakistan, India had built up troops along border region during conflict
- Pakistani general warns of threat of escalation in future
- Mirza warns there might not be enough time for future international mediation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India are close to reducing the troop build up along their border to levels before conflict erupted between the nuclear-armed neighbours this month, a top Pakistani military official told Reuters on Friday, although he warned the crisis had increased the risk of escalation in the future.
General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Pakistan’s chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, in an interview with Reuters said the two militaries had started the process of drawing down troop levels.
“We have almost come back to the pre-22nd April situation… we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now,” said Mirza.
India’s ministry of defence and the office of the Indian chief of defence staff did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the remarks by Mirza.
“Nothing happened this time”
Mirza, who is in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue forum, said while there was no move toward nuclear weapons during this conflict, it was a dangerous situation.
“Nothing happened this time,” he said. “But you can’t rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, because when the crisis is on, the responses are different.”
“Dangerous trend”
“This (conflict) lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear powers…in the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to (the) whole of India and (the) whole of Pakistan,” Mirza said. “This is a very dangerous trend.”
Mirza warned that international mediation might be difficult in the future because of a lack of crisis management mechanisms between the countries.
“The time window for the international community to intervene would now be very less, and I would say that damage and destruction may take place even before that time window is exploited by the international community,” he said.
“Open to dialogue”
Pakistan was open to dialogue, he added, but beyond a crisis hotline between the directors general of military operations and some hotlines at the tactical level on the border, there was no other communication between the two countries.
Mirza said there were no backchannel discussions, or informal talks, to ease tensions. He also said he had no plans to meet General Anil Chauhan, India’s chief of defence staff, who is also in Singapore for the Shangri-La forum.
“These issues can only be resolved by dialogue and consultations, on the table. They cannot be resolved on the battlefield,” Mirza said.
