Re-engagement risks

India must recalibrate its strategic posture. It needs to intensify diplomatic outreach in Washington to caution against a policy that risks emboldening a historically revisionist state. The risk is not merely to India, but to regional stability. Pakistan's past behaviour makes clear that any military or economic concessions are likely to be misused rather than serve peace

- ANAND KUMAR The writer is Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

The recent high-level visits of Pakistan's top military leadership to the United States — first by Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and then Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu — are signalling a potential shift in South Asia's strategic landscape. For a region already grappling with volatility, these engagements may have far-reaching implications.

The United States, which in the past decade consciously de-hyphenated its relationships with India and Pakistan, now appears to be recalibrating that balance in a way that risks reviving older fault lines. While this renewed engagement with Pakistan might appear transactional on the surface, its consequences could be destabilising for the entire region.

General Munir's Washington visit, which included a working lunch with President Donald Trump, has seemingly emboldened Pakistan's military establishment. Munir not only used the platform to advocate for military and economic support but also chose to revive old disputes such as Kashmir. Predictably, he accused India of aggression while turning a blind eye to Pakistan's longstanding complicity in cross-border terrorism.

Despite facing internal political and economic turmoil, Pakistan continues to project itself as a "net regional stabiliser." Such claims stand in sharp contrast to evidence emerging from Indian intelligence and independent media reports, which indicate that Pakistan is actively rebuilding terror infrastructure destroyed during India's recent retaliatory strikes under Operation Sindoor.

That operation, launched in response to the brutal Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025 that killed 26 civilians, targeted nine terror camps across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Since then, Pakistan has shifted tactics — moving from large, easily identifiable training centres to smaller, mobile, and technologically enabled terror camps, often hidden deep within forested terrain to evade detection.