External affairs minister SM Krishna met his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Kabul on Thursday. The two were attending a ceremony where Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second term as president of Afghanistan.
Even though Karzai’s election was marred by allegations of rigging, a host of dignitaries, including US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, attended his inauguration.
Afghan foreign minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta had hosted a luncheon for the visiting dignitaries. Krishna, who was seated next to Qureshi, had a brief chat with Clinton on the sidelines of the luncheon. Officials described the meeting as informal and certainly not planned. Interior minister Rehman Mallik was also present.
Pakistan is trying its best to roll back India’s presence in Afghanistan, which it regards as its backyard and therefore, under Islamabad’s sphere of influence.
India alleged that the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in July was done in active connivance with Pakistan’s intelligence agency. The focus of the Pakistani military is to get India to vacate the consulates it has in Jalalabad, Herat, Kandhar and Mazar-e-Sharif.
The two foreign ministers are expected to meet again later this month at the Commonwealth meet in Port-of-Spain. However, with neither president Asif Ali Zardari nor prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani expected to attend the summit, the meeting is not expected to lead to any breakthrough.
