Sartaj Aziz and Ajit Doval meet but nothing official about it

Modi was muted in his criticism of Islamabad compared with his attack on the country during the BRICS Summit in Goa

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani slammed Pakistan for its support to terrorism in the region at the concluding day of the Heart of Asia conference. Pakistani diplomats tried to steal the thunder as they circulated a photograph of Ajit Kumar Doval, India’s National Security Advisor (NSA)  in an animated chat with Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s advisor on foreign affairs to PM Nawaz Sharif, it sparked speculation that the two sides might be looking at a rapprochement after months of terrorist attacks and cross-Line of Control (LoC) shelling. 

While sources on the Pakistani side claimed Aziz and Doval had a 30-minute meeting on Saturday night, India’s ministry of external affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup categorically said “that there was no pull aside or bilateral meeting”. 

 

Sources on the Indian side, however, admitted Aziz and Doval “strolled for a hundred a metres together” after Aziz attended an official dinner for visiting dignitaries on Saturday night. The Pakistanis continued to maintain the meeting was unstructured. At the dinner, Modi and Aziz shook hands and the Indian PM inquired about his Pakistani counterpart’s health, who had undergone a heart surgery a few months ago.  

While the Indian side suggested Aziz and Doval’s ‘100-feet stroll’ was not significant,  such small instances are known to have led to India-Pak  thaws in the past, including Modi and Sharif’s you-blink-and-you-miss 120 seconds chat on the sidelines of the Paris climate change talks on November 30 last year.  Aziz was originally scheduled to land on Sunday morning to attend the conference, but advanced his itinerary to arrive here on Saturday evening. 

The Indian side ascribed this to the 87-year-old de-facto Pakistan foreign minister’s effort to beat the early morning fog that could have  delayed his arrival in Amritsar on Sunday morning. In his inaugural address at the conference on Sunday, which he jointly opened along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister Modi was muted in his criticism of Islamabad compared with his attack on the neighbouring country during the BRICS Summit in Goa in mid-October for support and sponsoringof terrorism. 

In Goa, Modi had called Pakistan the “mothership of terrorism”. On Sunday, Modi said: “Silence and inaction against terrorism in Afghanistan and our region will only embolden terrorists and their masters.” He said the international community “must demonstrate strong collective will to defeat terror network that cause bloodshed and spread fear”. 
 

 Afghan President Ghani praised India’s “no-strings attached” help to Kabul. In what was music to New Delhi’s ears, Ghani said that Pakistan’s proposed $500 million in funds for reconstruction to Afghanistan was “better served fighting terrorism”. 

In his speech, Aziz said, without mentioning Kashmir, that “peaceful resolution of outstanding disputes will further improve regional cooperation and connectivity”, and that “it was simplistic to blame only one country for the recent upsurge in violence” and that there was a need to have an objective and holistic view”.