War clouds wither, but missions duck for cover

NEW DELHI: If the Indo-Pak tensions eased this week, the Capital''s diplomatic community''s barometer did not register the change.
For the diplomats and missions running scared, the Richter scale was still way above the acceptable level, and earlier decisions on evacuation of non-essential staff, families and citizens remained in place.
While a large number of missions have not followed this "needless hysteria" as it was termed succintly by the external affairs spokesperson last week, those who had evacuated reported "no change" in the steps set out by their foreign ministries.
The tone was set by the lead players of this panic flight, the US and Britain. Though both were first to publicly acknowledge an easing of tensions, neither has reversed its decision on evacuating non-essential staff, leave alone revising its negative travel advisory.
The US, which has been accorded much of the credit for the easing of tensions, remained adamant that there would be no change in either its current staffing pattern (only emergency staff remain at the US embassy) nor in its travel advisory.
The British high commission echoes the same stand, even though British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had welcomed the steps announced by India, describing them as a easing of tensions.
With the two staying cautious, other Western countries have by and large also decided not to take the risk of making any changes, awaiting perhaps more steps or a longer gap in time before reversing their panicked reactions.
The EU countries might soon start consulting each other on a reassessment after the steps to de-escalate, though most would find it difficult to announce any immediate change, said a European diplomat.
One of the exceptions in the EU is Italy. Not only was there no evacuation but it insisted that the situation was safe enough, there being no immediate threat. It did not issue any advise to its citizens in India to leave the country and only urged would-be travellers to India to defer their visit.
The French embassy, which also did not report evacuation of diplomats, says a reassessment of the threat perception is underway.
The Japanese embassy where diplomats stay on, (families have been evacuated and citizens asked to leave) says a continuous process of monitoring is underway.
But there are no absentees in the Russian embassy either and not even the families of diplomats have left, unless for the summer holidays. Neither are there any evacuations in the Israeli embassy. However, both have urged travellers to defer their visits, unlike China.
In the Chinese embassy, across from the short-staffed American mission, there are no warnings, evacuations, returns or advisories. It is business as usual.