Saudi minister makes unannounced Delhi visit amid India-Pakistan tensions

Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir has arrived in New Delhi on a previously unannounced visit and met external affairs minister S Jaishankar today (8 May) against the backdrop of heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the military strikes in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack.

The only word on the meeting between the Saudi leader, who is also the kingdom's climate envoy, and the Indian minister came from Jaishankar in the form of a social media post. "A good meeting with @AdelAljubeir, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia this morning," he said.

"Shared India's perspectives on firmly countering terrorism," Jaishankar said, in a reference to India's military strikes on Wednesday that targeted terrorist infrastructure at nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The Pakistani military said the strikes killed 26 people and injured 46 others. The action codenamed Operation Sindoor increased tensions that have existed between the two sides since the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 that killed 26 people. India had unveiled a range of punitive diplomatic, economic, and political measures, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, over "cross-border linkages" to the Pahalgam massacre.

The Saudi minister's meeting with Jaishankar came hours after Iran's foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, flew into New Delhi late on Wednesday for a previously scheduled visit to co-chair a meeting of the bilateral joint commission with Jaishankar.

Araghchi had ruffled feathers in New Delhi by recently offering to mediate between India and Pakistan, which he had described as brotherly neighbours that are a "foremost priority" for Iran. He had said in a social media post that "Tehran stands ready to use its good offices in Islamabad and New Delhi to forge greater understanding at this difficult time".

Araghchi also made an unscheduled visit to Pakistan on Monday for consultations with the leadership in Islamabad. He then returned to Tehran before flying to New Delhi to signify Iran's de-hyphenation of its relations with India and Pakistan.

There were also indications from Islamabad about possible back-channel contacts to defuse the tensions. In an interview with Turkiye's TRT World news channel, Pakistan's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, acknowledged there was a "contact" between the Indian and Pakistani national security advisers.

"There has been contact between the two," Dar said without giving details.

Last week, the Pakistan government took the unprecedented step of appointing Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency chief Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik as the NSA. The NSA's post had been vacant since April 2022, and the appointment was widely perceived as giving the Pakistan Army, which largely decides foreign and security policy, primacy in any possible outreach to the Indian side through the NSA's post, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

There have been numerous reports of back-channel contacts between the Indian and Pakistani NSAs and security officials in the past decade, including in third countries such as Thailand and the UK, to defuse and manage bilateral tensions.