Remarks by DG ISSI Ambassador Sohail Mahmood at the Launch of Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry’s Book, “Pakistan-India Relations: Fractured Past, Uncertain Future”, ISSI, 3 October 2025
Let me begin by warmly welcoming everyone to the ISSI for this Book Launch event. Our focus today is on Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry’s latest book, Pakistan-India Relations: Fractured Past, Uncertain Future.
We are privileged to have a group of very distinguished speakers – including Vice Admiral Khan Hasham and Raja Amir Iqbal. As seasoned practitioner and business leader, they have been engaged with India-Pakistan relations from their respective vantage points and have valuable understanding and insights to share with us.
We are delighted to have Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry in person to talk about his experience as this book travelled the distance from conception to cold print. It is always fascinating to hear about the author’s journey, and especially what in their view is the core message that they wish to communicate.
It is an honour to have former Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jillani gracing the occasion as chief guest. In his long and distinguished public career, spanning over five decades now, Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jillani has remained deeply involved with Pakistan-India relations. It will be no exaggeration to say that improvement of Pakistan-India relations has been his life-long mission; and he remains committed to it despite setbacks, disappointments, and evidently formidable challenges. In that sense, he is the quintessential diplomat – always seeking to build bridges, and never giving up. It will be a privilege to hear his rich perspective as we delve into today’s theme.
Insofar my own remarks, I have divided these in three parts – focusing on the author; on the book; and on the larger question of Pakistan-India relations.
First, the author. As we all know, Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry has had an illustrious career in the foreign service of Pakistan. Its major highlights include serving as Ambassador to the Netherland and the United States, and over three years as Foreign Secretary. He also served in very senior positions dealing with the United Nations and South Asia, and as Ministry’s Spokesperson. In these myriad assignments, he had both a panoramic as well as ringside view of Pakistan-India relations. At several critical junctures in this fateful relationship, he was an active participant in the deliberations. To his credit, despite the obstacles and road-blocks, he remained steadfast and passionately attached to the idea of India-Pakistan peace and normalization. One could always discern in him the abiding realism of a diplomat, and the enduring passion of a peace activist. I see a clear reflection of both these strands in this book as well. His mind fully recognizing that the road to better India-Pakistan relations remains paved with insurmountable problems, but his heart saying that peace and normalization should be possible and that these are goals worth pursuing. I believe these sentiments are precious. In these darker times, when flux polarization, fragmentation and uncertainty, mark the world and our region, it is even more important to pursue these worthy goals with determination. As such, we see Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry remaining relentless in this quest, with the disposition of an incurable optimist. I reiterate my deep respect for these endeavours.
Second, the book. Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry’s central concern in the book has been as to what really ails India-Pakistan relations. In his view, the weight of geography and history has been too heavy to bear. The two countries have been unable to transform proximity into partnership. He highlights at least five central challenges: (i) the intractability of Jammu and Kashmir dispute; (ii) the un-bridgeability of the two countries’ positions on the issue of terrorism; (iii) the vagaries of domestic politics; (iv) the headlong Indian pursuit of regional domination; and (v) the complexity of global geo-politics.
He also provides powerful counter-points to India’s stale, regurgitative and unconvincing narrative of ‘cross-border terrorism’ aimed at both maligning and coercing Pakistan. Like a broken record, we witnessed that this was played yet again after the Pahalgam attack of 22 April, but the world saw it lacking in any creditability whatsoever. On the other hand, Ambassador Aizaz convincingly shows how India’s state-sponsored terrorism is seeking to destabilize Pakistan, with support to entities like BLA and TTP.
Another important angle that Ambassador Aizaz has explored is the role that the leadership in the two countries has, or could have, played in preventing the development of an acrimonious relationship. In his reckoning, however, the record on this account is not particularly scintillating in view of the persistent mutual distrust and multiple other constraints. As such, some bolder initiatives from either side eventually failed to yield any sustained outcomes.
Yet another important aspect of the book is its exploration of the ways in which the two countries can attain peaceful coexistence and manage negative perceptions of each other. It contains what the author calls “doable recommendations” on the issues that have long bedeviled the relationship and adds a discussion about whether the concept of geo-economics can be applied in South Asia for the larger good of both countries and the region. Two statements that define the author’s fundamental outlook and struck me particularly were: “Today’s acute hostility in bilateral relations is not the end-state.” And: “It has been my unwavering conviction that a day would come when the leadership and other stakeholders in India and Pakistan would simultaneously become convinced of the need for peaceful coexistence, and the future of South Asia as a region would be brighter than it appears today.”
Overall, the book makes an important contribution from Pakistan’s perspective to the discourse on Pakistan-India relations, which remains heavily influenced by the Indian narratives within the region and outside. It is my hope that this book would be read much more closely in India, where the prevailing environment does not allow for too much deviation from the entrenched nationalistic narratives.
Third, my thoughts on the larger question of India-Pakistan relations. I wish to make three points in this regard:
One, it is essential to clearly see the wreckage that passes for India-Pakistan relations today. Over the past 11 years, since 2014, the edifice of Pakistan-India relations has been systematically dismantled, brick-by-brick. So there is no structured dialogue process; refusal to even acknowledge Kashmir as a dispute; increasing resort to kinetic action and the use of force; phenomenal increase in the use of agents and proxies to assassinate on Pakistan’s soil and foment trouble in Balochistan; pressure on FATF and IFIs to coerce Pakistan; weaponisation of trade, sports and water, with IWT held in abeyance; and complete stalling of the process of regional cooperation and dysfunctionality of SAARC. It would take a long time and a herculean effort to reverse the damage that has already occurred.
Two, It is important to squarely face and find ways to address four structural challenges to Pakistan-India relations: (a) the defining role that the RSS-BJP inspired Hindutva ideology now plays in shaping the bilateral relationship; (b) the instrumental role that the Pakistan ‘bogey’ plays in advancing the BJP’s domestic political interests, and especially electoral calculations; (c) the economic differential between India and Pakistan that induces notions of grandeur on New Delhi’s part, results in enormous arrogance and hubris, and often leads to military miscalculations; and (d) India’s major-power ambitions, which hinge on close alignment with the U.S. and a strategic collusion for the ‘containment’ of China. All these factors lend immense complexity to any good faith efforts for normalization.
Three, the 4-day India-Pakistan conflict has demonstrated that we are yet again at an historic inflection point. India’s myth of military invincibility stands shattered; India’s incapacity to impose its will on Pakistan reaffirmed; and India’s international image and diplomatic standing severely battered. This should be enough to cause sober reflection on the part of New Delhi and rethink its consistently failing approach towards Pakistan.
For its part, without being triumphalist, Pakistan must maintain its overall objective of seeking a cooperative and good-neighborly relationship with India, but with dignity and honour. It has to be based on mutual respect, sovereign equality, and mutual benefit. We should neither exhibit any unseemly haste, nor contemplate any unilateral concessions. Pakistan must maintain its long-standing, principled position on Kashmir, and employ every feasible diplomatic, political and legal option to safeguard its legitimate rights under the IWT. Above all else, this is the time for internal and external consolidation. And this is the time for strategic clarity and strategic patience vis-à-vis India. The good news is that, despite all the vicissitudes, the historical pattern of the relationship has been one of oscillation between engagement and estrangement, and cooperation and confrontation. Like the other episodes in the past, this too shall pass. We should neither lower our ambition for peace; nor lose our faith in diplomacy.
