India, UK talk on Pak, J-K elections

External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha had barely boarded his special aircraft for the Maldives yesterday when Prime Minister Vajpayee&#14...

External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha had barely boarded his special aircraft for the Maldives yesterday when Prime Minister Vajpayee’s ‘‘personal envoy’’ to London, Brajesh Mishra, moved in to put his stamp on the debut visit of British PM Tony Blair’s ‘‘personal envoy’’to India, David Manning.

‘The dynamics at their bilateral meeting as well as over lunch,’’ diplomatic sources said later, ‘‘were excellent’’. Manning took the return flight home today, having completed his tour of the Ministries of External Affairs and Defence — and coming to grips with India’s positions from Kashmir to counter-terrorism and bilateral trade.

This was Manning’s first encounter with Mishra here, after January’s Delhi Declaration between Messrs Blair and Vajpayee, when they named their ‘‘personal envoys’’, and clearly, New Delhi had pulled out all the stops.

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Apart from the meeting with Sinha, Manning met officials linked to New Delhi’s Kashmir initiative, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal as well as Joint Secretary Arun Singh from the Pakistan desk. This morning Army chief S. Padmanabhan did the honours.

The visit must be viewed in terms of a curtain-raiser to the trip of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on July 19, in turn a precursor to the visit here of US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Clearly, Britain and US are continuing to keep tabs on the Indo-Pak situation, monitoring military de-escalation, keeping themselves updated on cross-border infiltration and insisting promises are kept by both sides.

The fact that Manning was also briefed by Indian officials who also deal with J-K, including the PM’s advisor on J-K A.S. Dullat, indicates Delhi wants to draw London into its own gameplan, on the poll process as well as longer-term strategy.