Loud Thinking

New Year 2026 Greetings

As the new year 2026 unfolds, we extend our heartfelt wishes to the people of India for peace, stability, and prosperity. This message from Pakistan comes not as a gesture of weakness, nor as rhetoric, but as a confident appeal rooted in realism, dignity, and goodwill.

If friendship is to exist between our two nations, it must be sincere and meaningful, not symbolic, selective, or hypocritical. True friendship cannot flourish amid double standards, nor can peace endure where mistrust is cultivated as policy.

Pakistan today stands as a strong, resilient, and fully capable country, secure in its sovereignty and firm in its deterrence. This strength is not meant for aggression, but for stability. At the same time, the strategic reality of our region is undeniable: neither India nor Pakistan can conquer the other without inviting mutual destruction. Conflict between us promises no victor; only irreversible loss.

So why must we continue to exhaust our energies on imagined hatreds and inherited animosities? Why remain captives of a painful past when the future calls for wisdom, restraint, and vision?

Let this new year be a conscious moment of renewal.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Let us choose genuine peace which must be grounded in mutual respect and strategic balance. Let fear give way to confidence, and provocation to dialogue. Let both nations feel secure enough to step back from perpetual confrontation and redirect their immense potential toward human progress.

Ring out the false pride of place and blood,

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

Ring out the thousand wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Let us fight the real enemies that plague our peoples with poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance, and inequality. Let us imagine a subcontinent known not as a nuclear flashpoint, but as a cradle of civilisation, commerce, culture, and compassion.

India and Pakistan need only a single uninterrupted decade of authentic and sustained peace to transform South Asia into one of the most powerful economic and cultural regions of the world. The condition is simple yet profound: peace must be genuine, consistent, and mutual; like the peace that binds today’s Europe.

Why should India and Pakistan continue to live like a divided Korea: eternally mobilised, mistrustful, and frozen in hostility? Why can we not live like a united Europe? Europe, once shattered by centuries of conflict and two world wars, chose reconciliation over revenge; and today reaps the dividends of peace, integration, and shared prosperity.

Both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed states. War between us is not courage; it is collective suicide. Even the illusion of “limited war” is a dangerous fantasy. Any escalation risks destruction so vast that it would poison not only our lands, but the future of generations to come.

Peace, therefore, is not a concession. It is the highest form of strategic wisdom.

Disputes will remain; no neighbours are without differences. But civilisation advances when peace is given priority over provocation, and dialogue over dogma.

Let us make a new beginning with the simple and humane resolve:

Long live the friendship of the teeming millions of India and Pakistan.

With respect, confidence, and sincere hope for a peaceful and prosperous year ahead.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore – Pakistan

+92 321 9402157

1st January, 2026

nayyarahmad51@gmail.com The writer is a senior corporate leader and strategic analyst. His thought-provoking visionary insights have reshaped global discourse, capturing the attention of world leaders. His writings have not only resonated with heads of state and governments but have also influenced the foreign policies of the United States and other major powers.