NEW DELHI — After a gap of around 28 months, India and Pakistan have issued assignment visas to each other’s diplomats as both countries try to normalize the ties between the countries.
Both countries have issued many assignment visas to each other’s diplomatic staff in recent weeks.
India and Pakistan have issued visas on all applications submitted by March 15, 2021.
Assignment Visas are issued only to Diplomatic/official passport holders posted to the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi.
A total of seven Pakistani diplomats received assignment visas from India, while Pakistan issued visas to 33 Indian officials.
India and Pakistan are likely to issue more visas to each other’s diplomats.
Both countries around the world issue assignment visas to diplomats and embassy staff from other countries.
In January 2021, the two arch-enemies held secret talks in Dubai, initiated backchannel diplomacy aimed at normalizing ties in the next several months.
The armies of both India and Pakistan in February 2021 announced an unexpected joint ceasefire.
In April, the UAE’s envoy to Washington said that the Gulf state was mediating between India and Pakistan to reach a healthy and functional relationship.
“UAE had played a role in bringing Kashmir escalation down and created a ceasefire, hopefully ultimately leading to restoring diplomats and getting the relationship back to a healthy level,” said Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba in a virtual discussion with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
“They might not becoming best friends, but at least we want to get it to a level where it’s functional, where it’s operational, where they are speaking to each other.”
Earlier in March, Chief of Amy Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa called on India to bury the past and move towards cooperation.
The ties between both the countries were severed after the 2019 Pulwama attack in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed.
On Feb. 14, 2019, a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a 16-vehicle convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force, as per reports.
“The Feb. 14 suicide attack that killed more than 40 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the Pulwama district of Indian Kashmir has resulted in some security and political challenges for the Indian government,” states the report.
“The attack almost brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. Following Indian airstrikes on Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) camps in the Balakot district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan responded with its own retaliatory strikes in the Indian Kashmir.”
(With inputs from ANI)
Edited by Saptak Datta and Ritaban Misra
The post India, Pakistan Issue Diplomatic Visas To Each Other After 28 Months appeared first on Zenger News.
