22 Mar 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) allegedly brokered a ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan last month, according to Emirati officials.
"Yet behind closed doors, the India-Pakistan ceasefire marked a milestone in secret talks brokered by the UAE that began months earlier," Bloomberg quoted the officials, who asked to remain unnamed.
The ceasefire agreement is just the beginning of a larger roadmap to ensure lasting peace between the two countries, one of the officials said.
In the next step, the two neighbors are expected to reappoint envoys in New Delhi and Islamabad, the officials noted.
The two sides then, the officials said, will begin negotiations on recommencing trade relations and achieve a permanent solution to the Kashmir conflict.
"Expectations were low that the current detente would achieve much beyond the return of envoys and a resumption of trade through their Punjab land border," officials said.
There was no comment from the UAE, India, or Pakistan on the allegations.
Pakistan asked India last week to take the first step towards peace and resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.
Speaking at the opening session of the first Islamabad Security Dialogue conference in the Pakistani capital, Prime Minister Imran Khan said: "We want peace with India, but India must take the first step towards peace because we cannot move forward without it".
After Khan, the country's military chief Qamar Javed Bajwa said on Thursday that "it is time to bury the past," but India must create a "conducive environment" for meaningful dialogue.
Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, have tested positive for COVID-19, his office confirmed on Saturday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to convey his "best wishes" for his Pakistani counterpart's speedy recovery on the same day.
