Tariq Aziz makes a quiet trip to offer Pak’s condolences

Aziz flew into New Delhi this morning—he came on board an executive jet, landing at IGI Airport at 10.42 am and exiting at 5.43 pm—to convey President Musharraf’s condolences on the loss of life in the tsunami disaster.

He also offered personal condolences to Dixit’s widow, Annapurna.

Though the Government remained silent on the Aziz visit, it’s learnt that he met Manmohan Singh and Natwar Singh. Sources said that Aziz did not have a one-on-one meeting with M K Narayanan, the interim NSA, who was briefed over the weekend on diplomatic manoeuvres with Pakistan.

Aziz also wanted to meet former NSA Brajesh Mishra but that meeting was deferred at the last minute. Aziz apparently phoned Mishra on Friday night to fix a Monday meeting. But on Sunday night, the PMO informed Mishra that the Aziz visit was limited to conveying condolence messages.

Sources said that Aziz would be speaking to his Indian counterpart before Natwar Singh’s visit to Pakistan. It will be first bilateral visit by an Indian Foreign Minister since the early 1990s.

Although bilateral ties have been looking up, there’s unease in New Delhi with Islamabad indicating that it would take the Baglihar hydel project issue to the third party, the World Bank.

People-to-people contacts have been strengthened, especially after the new measures announced during Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran’s visit to Islamabad last month.

Infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir is at an all-time low but the latest inputs provided to South Block indicate that the militant infrastructure across the border has still not been completely dismantled.

New Delhi has made it clear to Islamabad it’s willing to consider all options that Pakistan brings up at the meetings on Jammu and Kashmir provided infiltration is stopped and the militant infrastructure uprooted.

It’s also awaiting Islamabad’s response on two Kashmir CBMs: opening meeting points along the LoC and flag meetings between LoC sector commanders.