Dixit to play point on China, Pakistan

Highly-placed sources here said the new NSA would also continue a special relationship established between Mishra and Tariq Aziz, secretary of Pakistan’s National Security Council, that really paved the way for the pathbreaking January summit between Vajpayee and President Musharraf.

The third round of the Sino-Indian border talks between Mishra and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo had been tentatively scheduled to take place on May 25-26, subject to confirmation of the election results.

With the surprise Congress win, there has been considerable speculation whether this separate and politically mandated track would continue or not. It is now believed that the border talks will be postponed, but will continue.

Meanwhile, twenty-four hours after his appointment, US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice called Dixit today, a signal that both Washington and New Delhi continued to hold each other in high esteem despite the new government’s rhetoric on ‘‘multipolarity’’ that has been worrying some quarters in the Western world.

The Congress government’s message of ‘‘continuity’’ in foreign policy seems to have rather assured the US, especially after the call on External Affairs minister K. Natwar Singh by US ambassador to India David Mulford and in the wake of Rice’s call to Dixit.

But New Delhi is also clear that high engagement with the US and other major Western powers — German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is expected here in July — will not come at the expense of traditional ties with Palestine and the Arab world.

Natwar Singh will meet the SAARC and ASEAN ambassadors accredited to India tomorrow, signalling the importance New Delhi imparts to the neighbourhood. It is also likely that Singh will attend the Asian Cooperation Dialogue meeting in Beijing on June 21-22 as well as the Asean Regional Forum meeting in Jakarta on July 1.

The ARF foreign ministerial becomes important not only because Singh will interact with key foreign ministers worldwide, including US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but also because Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri will be present.

Significantly, New Delhi withdrew its objections to a Pakistani application for ARF membership, allowing Islamabad to become a part of this key regional security body. The Jakarta ARF will be Pakistan’s maiden entry.

In turn, Pakistan assured the ARF that it would not raise ‘‘bilateral issues’’ in ARF deliberations, a euphemism for Kashmir, thereby not only assuaging New Delhi’s concerns but also calming ARF fears that the organisation could become hostage to unnecessary wrangling between the two often-hostile neighbours.