TASHKENT — India and Pakistan have agreed in principle to a formal ceasefire framework brokered under Shanghai Cooperation Organisation auspices, diplomats confirmed Thursday, following intensive back-channel negotiations held over the past 72 hours in Uzbekistan's capital. The agreement, described by SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming as a 'significant step toward regional stabilisation,' calls for an immediate halt to cross-border fire along the Line of Control in Kashmir and the establishment of a joint military hotline to manage incidents in real time.

The breakthrough came after SCO member states — including China and Russia — applied sustained pressure on both governments during closed-door sessions at the organisation's Tashkent secretariat. Beijing, which maintains close ties with Islamabad and has recently deepened diplomatic engagement with New Delhi, played a central mediating role, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova confirmed Moscow's support for the framework in a statement released Thursday morning.

India's External Affairs Ministry acknowledged the talks in a carefully worded statement, saying New Delhi 'welcomes any mechanism that reduces the risk of miscalculation and protects civilian lives' while stopping short of endorsing the full SCO framework language. Pakistan's Foreign Office was more effusive, calling the agreement a 'constructive outcome' and crediting SCO leadership with creating the conditions for dialogue that bilateral channels had failed to provide.

Analysts cautioned that the framework remains fragile. 'This is a ceasefire understanding, not a peace process,' said Moeed Yusuf, former Pakistani national security adviser, speaking to reporters in Islamabad. 'The structural disputes — water, Kashmir, cross-border militant activity — are entirely unresolved.' Indian strategic affairs commentators echoed the caution, noting that similar understandings in 2003 and 2021 eventually eroded under the weight of unresolved political grievances.

The United States welcomed the development through a State Department spokesman, calling it 'an important de-escalatory step' and urging both governments to build on the momentum. The European Union and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also issued statements of support. Attention now turns to whether the two sides will agree to the next phase of the framework — a scheduled review meeting set for early June — and whether domestic political pressures in both capitals will allow their respective governments to hold the line.