Top intelligence officers from Pakistan and India held secret talks in Dubai in January in a fresh effort to calm tensions over Kashmir, according to people with close knowledge of the matter in New Delhi.
But the two governments have reopened a back channel of diplomacy aimed at a modest roadmap to normalising ties over the next several months, the people said.
Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan, both of which claim all of the region but rule only in part.
Officials from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external spy agency, travelled to Dubai for a meeting facilitated by the United Arab Emirates government, two people said.
