SINGAPORE:Chairman of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, has issued a stark warning that long-simmering conflicts in South Asia — particularly the Kashmir dispute — threaten to escalate uncontrollably, endangering regional and global stability. Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, Mirza stressed that South Asia’s security crises cannot be divorced from Asia-Pacific stability discussions .
Mirza described institutional crisis-management mechanisms across the region as “uneven and weak,” urging nations to adopt “effective, systematic, and agreed-upon protocols” — including functional hotlines and joint exercises — to prevent tensions from erupting into open conflict. He emphasized that such frameworks require mutual trust and strategic understanding to succeed, stating: “Stability cannot be achieved in isolation but only through partnership and cooperation” .
Highlighting the Kashmir issue as a persistent flashpoint, Mirza cautioned that suppressing ideological differences only fuels volatility. Instead, he advocated for “*open and realistic dialogue*” to address root causes. His remarks followed recent India-Pakistan clashes that saw fighting spread beyond Kashmir into each country’s mainland — a shift Mirza termed “a dangerous trend” lowering the threshold for full-scale war between nuclear-armed neighbors .
The general also warned that shrinking time windows for international mediation heighten escalation risks, noting a critical lack of bilateral crisis-management channels between India and Pakistan beyond basic military hotlines .
