Marking the first high-level contact between officials from New Delhi and Islamabad since May 2025, a handshake between India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistan’s Speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq has ignited debate over whether the ice is beginning to thaw.

Coming across each other at the funeral of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in Dhaka last month, Jaishankar and Sadiq had exchanged brief pleasantries. While such interactions are routine at international gatherings, what made this informal encounter notable is the hardline posture adopted by New Delhi lately.

Ever since the four-day military conflict in May, a tense standoff has persisted between the two neighbours, and India has been steering clear of social greetings even at sports or cultural events.

This confrontation, which unfolded between May 7 and 10, 2025, marked the sharpest military exchange between the two countries in recent years.

What began as cross-border aerial hostilities quickly escalated into a wider, though still time-bound, conflict before a fragile pause was secured. The brief but intense nature of the standoff has since raised the threshold for any future military engagement, making subsequent diplomatic signals all the more scrutinised.

Therefore, the first images of the incident, shared on the official X account of Bangladesh’s Chief Executive, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, quickly fueled speculation.

Symbolism matters in diplomacy, and it seemed like New Delhi was reconsidering its public disengagement strategy.

Though the Indian government issued no statement on the matter, Pakistan’s National Assembly Secretariat later confirmed the exchange, pointing out that Jaishankar had “personally walked over to the Speaker” and “introduced himself during a handshake.” 

History repeats itself

Curiously, this gesture rekindles memories of another historic handshake. In 2002, Pakistan’s........

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