Future war risks engulfing whole countries: CJCSC
Listen to article
Pakistan and India are close to reducing the troop buildup along their border to levels before conflict erupted between the nuclear-armed neighbours this month, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza told Reuters on Friday.
However, he warned the crisis had increased the risk of escalation in the future.
Both sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones, and artillery in four days of clashes, their worst fighting in decades, before a ceasefire was announced.
The recent clashes between Pakistan and India arose following the Pahalgam attack on April 22 in the Indian-Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) that killed 26 people.
New Delhi blamed the incident without evidence on Pakistani elements, a charge denied by Islamabad, which sought an independent probe into the incident.
On May 7, India launched missiles at civilian sites. This prompted a defensive response from Pakistan and a subsequent troop buildup by both countries along the frontier.
General Mirza said the two militaries had started the process of drawing down troop levels. "We have almost come back to the pre-April 22 situation... we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now," said Mirza, the most senior Pakistani military official to speak publicly since the conflict.
India's Ministry of Defence and the office of the Indian Chief of Defence Staff did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the remarks by Mirza.
Mirza, who is in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue forum, said while there was no move towards nuclear weapons during this conflict, it was a dangerous situation.
"Nothing happened this time," he said. "But you can't rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, because when the crisis is on, the responses are different."
He also said the risk of escalation in the future had increased since the fighting this time was not limited to IIOJK.
"This (conflict) lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear powers...in the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to (the) whole of India and (the) whole of Pakistan," Mirza said. "This is a very dangerous trend."
Reuters has reported that the rapid escalation of hostilities ended in part because of behind-the-scenes diplomacy involving the US, India, and Pakistan, and the key role played by Washington in brokering peace.
India continues to deny any third-party role in the ceasefire and said that any engagement between India and Pakistan has to be bilateral.
But Mirza warned that international mediation might be difficult in the future because of a lack of crisis management mechanisms between the countries.
"The time window for the international community to intervene would now be very less, and I would say that damage and destruction may take place even before that time window is exploited by the international community," he said.
Pakistan was open to dialogue, he added, but beyond a crisis hotline between the directors general of military operations and some hotlines at the tactical level on the border, there was no other communication between the two countries.
Mirza said there were no backchannel discussions or informal talks to ease tensions.
He also said he had no plans to meet General Anil Chauhan, India's chief of defence staff, who is also in Singapore for the Shangri-La forum.
"These issues can only be resolved by dialogue and consultations, at the table. They cannot be resolved on the battlefield," Mirza said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
41 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
Indian Oil, BPCL resume buying Russian oil for September as discounts widen, sources say
NEW DELHI: India's state-run refiners Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum have bought Russian oil for September and October delivery, resuming purchases after discounts widened, two company officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday. The refiners had halted purchases in July due to narrower discounts and after India was criticised by Washington for its purchases of Russian oil. President Donald Trump also threatened an additional 25% levy on Indian goods, effective August 27, to penalize New Delhi for its continued buying of the oil. US Treasury chief Bessent accuses India of profiteering on Russian oil purchases Discounts for Russian flagship Urals crude have widened to about $3 per barrel, making the oil attractive for Indian refiners, while China has stepped up purchases, the officials said. In addition to Urals, IOC has also bought other Russian crude oil grades including Varandey and Siberian Light, they said. Indian companies do not comment on their crude imports. On Monday, IOC, the country's top refiner, told analysts that it would continue to buy Russian oil depending on economics.
Business Recorder
2 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Tech selloff casts gloom over markets
SINGAPORE: Global share markets came under pressure on Wednesday after a tech-led selloff on Wall Street, while the dollar gained some ground ahead of a key meeting of central bankers later in the week. Stock futures pointed to a lower opening in Europe and most Asian bourses were in the red, with tech-heavy indexes in Taiwan and South Korea among the biggest losers, in part due to worries about the Trump administration's growing influence on companies in the sector. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into the government taking equity stakes in Intel as well as other chip companies in exchange for grants under the CHIPS Act that was meant to spur factory-building around the country, sources told Reuters. The move comes on the back of other unusual deals Washington has recently struck with US companies, including allowing AI chip giant Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for the U.S. government receiving 15% of the revenue from those sales. 'These developments signal that the U.S. government is heading in a concerning and more interventionist direction,' said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid more than 1%, while EUROSTOXX 50 futures lost 0.64% and DAX futures shed 0.63%. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.27% and Nasdaq futures lost 0.44%, extending a fall from the cash session overnight. Japan's Nikkei lost 1.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Tech Index shed 1.3%. In commodities, oil prices trimmed losses from the previous session, as investors awaited the next steps in talks to end Russia's war on Ukraine, with uncertainty over whether oil sanctions might be eased or tightened. While a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a group of European allies over the Russia-Ukraine war concluded without much fanfare, Trump said the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there. He later said on Tuesday that the United States might provide air support to Ukraine, while ruling out putting U.S. troops on the ground. 'The U.S. is not categorically underwriting anything, any security for Ukraine, even if they're open to provide some, because we don't know the conditions under which they will. So there's quite a bit of risk left out there,' said Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho. Brent crude futures were last up 0.15% at $65.89 a barrel, while U.S. crude tacked on 0.1% to $62.41 per barrel. Awaitng Jackson hole All eyes are now on the Kansas City Federal Reserve's August 21-23 Jackson Hole symposium, where Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak on the economic outlook and the central bank's policy framework on Friday. Focus will be on what Powell says about the near-term outlook for rates, with traders almost fully pricing in a rate cut next month. 'Given the apparent tensions between US CPI and PPI data, (it) does come across as … premature to declare one way or the other. And most importantly, given this kind of dilemma embedded within the data, it is hard to decipher whether the Fed would take or would emphasise the risks that start to mount on the job side of the equation or (the) need to sit firm,' said Mizuho's Varathan. Ahead of the gathering, the dollar firmed slightly, pushing the euro down 0.13% to $1.1633, while sterling fell 0.16% to $1.3470. The New Zealand dollar tumbled more than 1% after its central bank cut rates as expected and flagged further reductions in coming months as policymakers warned of domestic and global headwinds to growth. The kiwi last bought $0.5835. Elsewhere, spot gold fell 0.07% to $3,312.89 an ounce.
Business Recorder
2 hours ago
- Business Recorder
US, NATO planners start to craft Ukraine security guarantee options
US and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine, U.S. officials and sources told Reuters on Tuesday, following President Donald Trump's pledge to help protect the country under any deal to end Russia's war. Ukraine and its European allies have been buoyed by Trump's promise during a summit on Monday of security guarantees for Kyiv, but many questions remain unanswered. Officials told Reuters that the Pentagon is carrying out planning exercises on the support Washington could offer beyond providing weapons. But they cautioned that it would take time for U.S. and European planners to determine what would be both militarily feasible and acceptable to the Kremlin. One option was sending European forces to Ukraine but putting the U.S. in charge of their command and control, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The sources added that the troops would not be under a NATO banner but operate under their own nations' flags. The Pentagon and NATO did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the idea. In a press briefing, the White House said that the United States could help coordinate a security guarantee for Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Ministry has ruled out the deployment of troops from NATO countries to help secure a peace deal. Possible US air support Trump has publicly ruled out deploying U.S. troops in Ukraine but on Tuesday appeared to leave the door open to other U.S. military involvement. In an interview with Fox News 'Fox & Friends' program, he suggested Washington could provide air support to Ukraine. 'When it comes to security, (Europeans) are willing to put people on the ground, we're willing to help them with things, especially, probably, … by air because nobody has stuff we have, really they don't have,' Trump said. He did not provide further details. U.S. air support could come in a variety of ways including providing more air defence systems to Ukraine and enforcing a no-fly zone with U.S. fighter jets. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022, the United States has shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons and munitions to Kyiv. The Trump administration briefly halted those weapons shipments, including after a contentious White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in February and again in July. Shipments have resumed and Trump has pledged to send weapons, primarily defensive ones, to help the war-torn country. NATO military leaders to meet NATO military chiefs will focus on Ukraine and the way forward when they meet virtually on Wednesday, a conference first reported by Reuters. U.S. Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, who also oversees NATO operations in Europe, will brief the chiefs of defense on the Alaska meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said U.S. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was expected to attend the meeting. The official added that Caine would meet with some of his European counterparts in Washington on Tuesday evening. Trump has pressed for a quick end to Europe's deadliest war in 80 years, and Kyiv and its allies have worried he could seek to force an agreement on Russia's terms after the president last week rolled out the red carpet for Putin. Russia says it is engaged in a 'special military operation' in Ukraine to protect its national security, claiming NATO's eastward expansion and Western military support for Ukraine pose existential threats. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab.
