NEW DELHI: When leaders of the eight-nation Saarc club meet in Kathmandu next week, veteran journalists would be by force of habit eyeing the chances for an India-Pakistan encounter. A less advertised crucial meeting for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi though would be with the only person in the cluster he hasn’t yet met — the new Afghan president.

Mr Modi made his intention clear on Thursday by telling visiting former president Hamid Karzai that the one person he was looking forward to meeting on the margins of the Saarc summit was President Ashraf Ghani.

Speculation is rife that high-level efforts are under way to get Mr Modi to “sit down” with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Kathmandu and there is no doubt it would be a big relief all round if the move succeeds.

Also read: Ghani dubs Pakistan 'important pillar' of Afghanistan foreign policy

Mr Ghani, however, has emerged to be just as vital a leader for India to seek out not the least because Pakistan is perceived in New Delhi as having stolen a march on it by hosting the new Afghan leader’s visit to Islamabad. To add to New Delhi’s worries, it took place after Mr Ghani visited China first.

Mr Modi, according to Thursday’s brief report by the United News of India, promised Mr Karzai India’s commitment to continuing full support to the new government in Afghanistan.

He said he “was looking forward to meeting Afghanistan’s new President Ashraf Ghani on the margins of the Saarc Summit in Nepal”, UNI said.

Mr Karzai on his part briefed the Indian leader on the developments in Afghanistan following the formation of the National Unity Government.

On Wednesday, Mr Karzai, speaking at a conference here, had stated that Kabul’s new policy, which was formulated after the 2001 terror attacks in New York, had placed India in a very prominent position.

Mr Modi would be keen to hear these words from the new incumbent in Kabul. All the leaders of Saarc were present at Mr Modi’s inauguration in May, barring Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, who he subsequently met in New York.

However, Mr Modi did greet President Ghani on the phone when he called him on October 15, lauding the new Afghan leader’s “wisdom and statesmanship, and his commitment to unity, peace and progress in Afghanistan, which had enabled the formation of a broad-based and inclusive government and a peaceful political transition”.

Analysts in Delhi believe Mr Modi’s call to Mr Ghani came two weeks late, after he was sworn in as president on September 29.

“Islamabad has since clearly edged New Delhi in establishing early relationships with Ghani and his closest aides over a fortnight when the Indian Prime Minister appeared more focused on election campaigns,” some senior officials in Delhi conceded to The Telegraph at the time.

“It isn’t time to ring the alarm bells yet, but we’re clearly playing catching up here,” an official said. “And when it’s a country as crucial as Afghanistan, falling behind so early in the game isn’t a good start.”

Published in Dawn, November 21th, 2014