Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi, however, had dismissed the US claim and asserted that India had not agreed to hold any such talks with Pakistan.
New Delhi: Notwithstanding the continuing war of words between New Delhi and Islamabad, some eminent Indian and Pakistani personalities recently held ‘Track-II’ dialogues, just within days after Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological mentor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, suggested that the doors of dialogue between the two nations should be kept open.
The “Track II” dialogue was held without any official involvement of the governments of India and Pakistan, although both were aware of the talks.
A source in New Delhi said that the recent ‘Track II’ dialogue between some Indian and Pakistani eminent personalities in Colombo had followed similar talks in Bangkok.
There had been two rounds of similar dialogue over the past few months, too, the source said, adding that some strategic affairs analysts, former diplomats and retired military officials of the two nations had taken part in the unofficial process.
Soon after the four-day cross-border military flare-up between the two South Asian neighbours had ended with a ceasefire on May 10, 2025, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio had claimed that India and Pakistan, in addition to the truce, had agreed to hold talks on “a broad set of issues” at “a neutral venue”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi, however, had dismissed the US claim and asserted that India had not agreed to hold any such talks with Pakistan.
New Delhi had then also refuted US President Donald Trump’s claims about brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Bhagwat, the RSS sarsanghchalak, and the organisation’s general secretary, Dattatreya Hosabale, recently argued that India should keep open the doors of dialogue with Pakistan. The RSS leaders underlined the need for continuing people-to-people contact.
Another source in New Delhi, however, said that while the Track II dialogues might continue, they were unlikely to lead to any official talks between India and Pakistan in the near future.
The Track-II dialogues took place even as Pakistan, of late, raised the pitch of its campaign against India’s decision to keep the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance as a response to the terrorist attacks in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
New Delhi and Islamabad also continued the war of words over Pakistan’s export of cross-border terrorism to India, and the situation in J&K. New Delhi also hit out at Islamabad for the atrocities on the protestors in J&K areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan.
The terrorists from Pakistan had killed 26 people – mostly tourists – at Baisaran Meadow near Pahalgam, J&K, in India on April 22, 2025. India had responded by launching Operation Sindoor and carrying out precision strikes on terrorist infrastructures in areas under the control of Pakistan in the wee hours of May 7, 2025. As the tension between the two neighbours had escalated, not only Washington, D.C., but Moscow and Beijing, too, had called for direct talks between India and Pakistan.
The BJP-led government, however, ruled out the possibility of the resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan.
New Delhi had once held regular dialogue with Islamabad on eight issues – peace and security, including Confidence Building Measures (CBMs); Jammu and Kashmir (J&K); Siachen; Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project; Sir Creek; Economic and Commercial Cooperation; Terrorism and Drug Trafficking; and Promotion of Friendly Exchanges in various fields.
The process had been suspended after 10 Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorists from Pakistan had sneaked into India and carried out the November 26-28, 2008, terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
