J.N. Dixit, 68; India Official Led Peace Initiatives With Pakistan
J.N. Dixit, 68, India’s national security advisor who led the nation’s peace initiatives with rival Pakistan, died Monday of a heart attack in New Delhi, the office of India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, announced.
Dixit was involved in negotiations with Pakistan on setting the decades-old Kashmir dispute as well as with China on settling a border dispute that had triggered a war in 1962 between the neighbors.
“He was a man who brought a sense of realism to India’s national security policy,” said C. Raja Mohan, a professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Dixit joined the Indian foreign service in 1958. He was India’s first ambassador to Bangladesh after it split from Pakistan. He was also ambassador to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
In 1991, he was appointed foreign secretary under the Congress Party-led government. He retired from the foreign service in 1994.
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