Aziz arrives, no bilateral engagement yet

India and Pakistan did not have any bilateral engagement on the first day of Heart of Asia meet in Amritsar, even as Sartaj Aziz, foreign affairs adviser of the neighbouring country’s prime minister M Nawaz Sharif, advanced his arrival to the city by a day.

Aziz advanced his visit apparently to attend the dinner hosted for the representatives of the 13 other Heart of Asia nations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President M Ashraf Ghani also joined the other dignitaries for the dinner. V K Singh and M J Akbar – the two Ministers of State for External Affairs – hosted the dinner.

Modi, however, just shook hands with Aziz and exchanged pleasantries as he did with all other leaders of the delegations from Heart of Asia nations. There was no bilateral engagement between India and Pakistan on Saturday, said sources.
 
Aziz was to arrive in Amritsar early on Sunday – just a few hours before Modi and Ghani would jointly inaugurate the sixth ministerial conference of Heart of Asia – a 14-nation initiative to help stabilize conflict-ravaged Afghanistan.

Though Islamabad has not yet officially cited any reason for advancing Aziz’s arrival in Amritsar, it was apparently a move by Pakistan to explore opportunities for a bilateral engagement with India on the sideline of the multilateral conclave, the sources said.

Aziz was also among the foreign ministers and other representatives of the Heart of Asia nations who collectively called on Prime Minister late at night on Saturday. “Pointing out that his several interactions with both the common people of Afghanistan and the country's leadership had convinced him that the people of Afghanistan were tired of the continuing violence and terrorism, Modi stressed the need to end terrorism and violence for fostering stability, security and development in Afghanistan and our region,” Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.

Aziz’s is the first high-level visit from Pakistan to India in 2016, which saw a series of setbacks to the efforts to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue – after many terrorist attacks on Indian armed force bases.

Islamabad’s envoy to New Delhi, Abdul Basit, has been over the past few days signaling Pakistan’s willingness for a bilateral engagement with India on the sideline of the Heart of Asia conference.