Saudi minister makes unannounced Delhi visit amid India-Pakistan tensions

New Delhi: Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Aljubeir is in India on an unannounced visit and held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday with a focus on de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. Aljubeir's visit to New Delhi comes as the already frosty ties between India and Pakistan plummet further following the Indian military's targeted strikes on nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. "A good meeting with @AdelAljubeir, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia this morning," Jaishankar said in a social media post. "Shared India's perspectives on firmly countering terrorism," he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also landed in New Delhi around midnight last night on a scheduled visit amid the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. Araghchi will hold wide-ranging talks with Jaishankar shortly. He is also meeting President Droupadi Murmu in the afternoon. In retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, Indian armed forces early Wednesday carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets, including Bahawalpur, a stronghold of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror outfit, and Muridke, the base of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said India decided to carry out the "proportionate" strikes to bring the perpetrators and planners of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack to justice as there was "no demonstrable step" from Pakistan to act against terrorist infrastructure on territories under its contr