Conference ends without India-Pak talks

­The sixth Heart of Asia ministerial conference concluded on Sunday without a bilateral engagement between India and Pakistan on the sideline. Sartaj Aziz, Foreign Affairs Adviser of Pakistan Prime Minister M Nawaz Sharif, returned to Islamabad, without having any one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Modi joined Afghan President M Ashraf Ghani to inaugurate the conference. Jaitley, standing in for External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, chaired the conference. Sushma, who is suffering from kidney failure, is undergoing dialysis at All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Pictures of Aziz and Modi’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval talking to each other at the venue of the  Heart of Asia meet did fuel speculation about a bilateral meeting between the two countries.

Official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup, however, categorically stated that the two had no pull-aside chat or a bilateral meeting. Aziz, who was to reach Amritsar on Sunday, advanced his arrival by a day, apparently to explore opportunities for an India-Pakistan bilateral engagement.

Shortly after he landed here, Aziz attended the dinner hosted by V K Singh and M J Akbar — the two Ministers of State for External Affairs – for the leaders of the delegations from Heart of Asia nations. He was also among the delegates, who collectively called on the prime minister late on Saturday night. Though Modi shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with Aziz, neither he nor Jaitley had any bilateral meeting with the Pakistani diplomat.