Confidence-building measures sustain relations between countries in friction-free or cordial times. In times of tension, particularly between contiguous nuclear powers, such as Pakistan and India, they are essential. It makes good sense to keep them in good repair. However, that is not the case in some respects. Most well-known is the hotline between the two Director Generals (Military Operations) which was negotiated by the two Foreign Secretaries in February 1987 after Brasstacks, the unprecedented Indian military exercise on Pakistan’s border, created a war-like atmosphere. When limited conflict erupted between the two countries earlier this year in May 2025, the DGMOs hotline was the only point of contact between the two countries, though both had their High Commissions in each other’s capitals which were in low-key mode as the High Commissioners had been withdrawn, a development that should have been reversed by now, not locked in by perceived policy compulsions. There are however, two other important CBMs, one which is not working well, and the other which has fallen into disuse.

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The first is the Agreement on Pre-Notification of Flight Testing of Ballistic Missiles signed on 3 October 2005. Given the short flight time between the two countries it was vital to have this mechanism in place, which was inter alia highlighted in the 1999 Lahore MOU when Prime Ministers Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif met in that city. The agreement’s preamble states, ‘Committed to adopt appropriate measures aimed at preventing misunderstandings and misinterpretations and promoting a stable environment of peace and security between the two countries’. The agreement covers any land or sea-launched surface to surface ballistic missile. It stipulates: three days........

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