As the country marked the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor, India’s strategic and foreign policy circles turned their attention to Pakistan, and New Delhi’s evolving approach towards its western neighbour. Here is my perspective.

After the success of the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, Pakistan thought that it could wrest Jammu & Kashmir from India, inter alia, through the ISI-mentored jihadi tanzeems. Successive Indian governments shored up Indian defences, and all prime ministers after Narasimha

Rao wanted to normalise ties through engagement.

In March 1997, the foreign secretaries met in Delhi after a hiatus of four years. Pakistan asked for the establishment of a “structured and integrated” dialogue mechanism. Its object was to control the scope and pace of bilateral ties. The process began in June 1997, and the India-Pakistan Composite Dialogue (CD) was announced in September 1998. Following the nuclear tests, Atal Bihari Vajpayee wanted engagement all the more. He instructed his negotiators, on the margins of the Durban Non-aligned summit in September 1998, to complete the process. This writer and the late Tariq Altaf, additional secretary in Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, finalised the nitty-gritty of the dialogue process during a one-on-one marathon session in the latter’s hotel. The CD was formally announced after Vajpayee’s meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York, some three weeks later.

The CD consisted of eight subjects, which could be put in three categories: Humanitarian matters, cooperation, and the resolution of issues, including J&K, and terrorism. Pakistan’s primary concern was J&K, and........

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