More than two million Indians and Pakistanis became friends on Facebook on Wednesday, the social networking giant said. Facebook has launched an initiative to track the number of friendships formed between people from disputed states. “Facebook connects people from all over the world even in unexpected places,” it said in a page titled “A World of Friends”. The American company said it connected as many as 2,031,779 people from India and Pakistan, 154,260 from Israel and Palestine, and 137,182 from Ukraine and Russia.

India and Pakistan have had longstanding territorial disputes over the Kashmir region since independence in 1947. The latest bone of contention between the neighbouring countries arose following the attack on the Pathankot airbase of the Indian Air Force, which India blamed on the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit. Relations between Ukraine and Russia deteriorated following the ousting of former pro-Russia Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 and the Russian annexation of Crimea. The decades-old violent conflict between Israel and Palestine also continues, with key issues including border disputes, mutual recognition, control of Jerusalem and freedom of Palestinian movement in Israeli-occupied territories.