General Qamar Javed Bajwa reportedly said he wanted peace and dialogue with India
Pakistan's Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has recognised that one of the ways of achieving peace in his country could be via military cooperation with India, a report by the UK-based think tank Royal United Services Institute has said.
General Bajwa had recently invited Sanjay Vishwasrao, the Indian military attache, and his team to the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad in March, Geo TV reported. General Bajwa had reportedly said that he wanted peace and dialogue with India.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers, along with the Chinese, will also
participate in joint military drills in Russia in September. The military exercise will take place under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a China-dominated security grouping which is increasingly seen as a counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), officials said.
"These initiatives come against a background of almost weekly exchanges of fire along the Line of Control in (Jammu and) Kashmir," said the report prepared by RUSI's South Asia and Middle East expert, Kamal Alam.
The Royal United Services Institute or RUSI on its website says it is an independent think tank "engaged in cutting edge defence and security research". The institution was founded in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington.
Senior Pakistani officer Lieutenant General Aamir Riaz headed the first high-level contact group with India as Director-General Military Operations, the report said. Another top officer, Major General Ahmed Hayat, the Director General of the analysis wing of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), authored the "India Plan" in 2013, which tried to ascertain how and when Pakistan should approach India.
General Hayat underscored that the Pakistani military would approach India after Islamabad strengthened its defence diplomacy without pressure or threats from Washington, the report said.
"It is a no-brainer that one cannot live in an environment of perpetual enmity with a neighbour six times your size, but the indicators have to be right," General Hayat said.
India has rejected Pakistan's offer of a transit trade dialogue on Afghan-Indian commerce, the report added.
The report suggested that the Pakistani military may continue with a sustained approach to seek a dialogue with India for peace and stability.
India has often accused Pakistan of
giving shelter to terrorists. The 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed is still roaming freely in Pakistan. In November last year, Hafiz Saeed was released from house arrest in Pakistan, a move that further inflamed tensions with India.
With inputs from ANI