One should keep in mind that the actions affecting the relations between two countries are always dictated by political necessity.
Growing economic & military strength has now raised China to Super Power status. This has forced the US to form the “Quad” consisting of Japan, South Korea, Australia & India to counter Chinese influence in the Southeast Asian region. India being the biggest military power (apart from China) in the East, there must be a lot of pressure from the US on India to play a key role in ASEAN.
Additionally, rational thinkers in the Indian political, as well as military circles, know full well that India will not be able to fight both China & Pakistan at the same time; therefore cooling off the tensions on the Western border is both a military and political necessity.
On the other hand, since the Indian economy is nearly 10 times Pakistan’s economy and armed forces about 3 times as much, any concession to Pakistan would not be seen as a sign of weakness by the Indian masses. Whereas any similar gesture towards China would be picked up as being ‘Cowardly’ by the political opponents of the BJP. This is the real reason behind the sudden cooling-off gestures by India.
Keeping things hot at the LOC has never been in Pakistan’s interest. Musharraf & the army brass realized almost 2 decades back that in addition to the disparity between the Pakistani & Indian armed forces; the difference between their economies was so great that Pakistan could never hope to win Kashmir by force. Hence out of the bloc solutions such as the opening up of the border between Azad Kashmir & IOK were started. Therefore any offering of peace by India is always welcome.
