Aziz early arrival news sparks Indo-Pak rapprochement hope

Sartaj Aziz (pictured), advisor to the Pakistan prime minister on foreign affairs, landed earlier than originally scheduled to attend a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for dignitaries attending the Heart of Asia conference here on Saturday, which sparked hopes that the strained relationship between the two countries might improve.

The Heart of Asia annual conference, an international effort to help Afghanistan in its transition from the war-torn past to a better future, is being held in the shadow of recent terror attacks in the subcontinent and escalation of tension on the India-Pakistan border.

Aziz was slated to land in Amritsar on Sunday morning. Government sources, both on the Pakistani as well as the Indian side, claimed that Aziz advanced his itinerary ostensibly to beat the early morning fog but declined to comment officially.

Sources did not rule out a ‘pull aside’ meeting between Aziz and Modi at the dinner later in the evening. Recent years have witnessed thaws in IndiaPakistan relations emerge from such meetings.

India and Pakistan have had fraught bilateral relations after the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase in January, which worsened after the Uri terror attack that was followed by the “surgical strike” by the Indian Army along the Line of Control. Cross-border shelling has continued ever since, as have terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

On Friday, Indian Finance Minister Arun Jatiley, who will lead the Indian delegation at the conference since External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is ailing, said Pakistan should introspect as to why tensions have worsened between the two countries.

Apart from this, India and Afghanistan are also likely to announce an air-cargo service to improve trade. Afghanistan is landlocked, and relies on the Karachi port in Pakistan for its foreign trade. While Pakistan allows Afghanistan to use the land route to export to India, Islamabad does not provide the same facility to Indian exports to Afghanistan.

Afghan Director General for Macro Fiscal Policies Khalid Payenda has indicated that the two sides were close to starting the air cargo service that would fly over Pakistan.

President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani landed in the evening. Modi and Ghani visited the Golden Temple. Aziz sent a bouquet to Swaraj to wish her speedy recovery. The last bilateral visit by a foreign minister of either of the two countries was when Swaraj visited Islamabad for the Heart of Asia conference in December 2015. The two neighbours had then agreed to revive their bilateral dialogue, which the Pathankot terror attack derailed.