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Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting in New York may take place

Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC

Speculation is rife that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee may meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New York, although senior United States Administration officials denied Washington was putting pressure on New Delhi to acquiesce to such a summit, and resurrect the Agra dialogue.

Buttressing the speculation is the fact that not only would Vajpayee and Musharraf remain in New York virtually all of Sunday, after addressing the United Nations on Saturday and the latter's meeting with President Bush, the schedules of both leaders remain relatively free on November 11.

According to some sources, if Bush urges Vajpayee to meet with Musharraf during their White House meeting on November 9, the prime minister may find it difficult to say no to Bush's request.

But diplomatic sources and Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh have asserted that as of now there is no such summit on the cards.

Vajpayee and Musharraf, however, are expected to bump into each other at United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's lunch for world leaders slated for November 10.

Indian officials have refused to divulge what Vajpayee, who leaves New York for Britain on Sunday night, will be doing all of that day.

Musharraf, besides attending a reception hosted in his honour by the Pakistani-American community and giving a series of press interviews for American newspapers and television networks, also has enough and more time on his hand, for any such summit to be slotted in.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Christina Rocca said on Tuesday, "To my knowledge, there are no plans for a Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting."

She told the South Asian press in Washington, "In general, as you know, we support a high-level sustained dialogue between India and Pakistan."

When asked if Bush would 'encourage' Vajpayee to meet Musharraf, Rocca said, "In general terms, my guess would be yes, but I can't speak for the White House."

"But I don't believe that there is going to be any meeting in New York or that we will be promoting any meeting in New York," she quickly reiterated.

However, Rocca acknowledged: "We are obviously interested in resurrecting the dialogue. We've been talking about that for a long time as you know."

On Kashmir, Rocca said, "Where we stand on Kashmir, is frankly where we've stood. What we've been saying all along is we support a sustained dialogue. We believe a dialogue would be a good step towards moving towards a resolution of this issue."

"But we believe it's something that needs to be resolved by both parties and it is not something we can do," she added.

Asked if the issue of terrorism in Kashmir, which India says emanates from Pakistan, would be raised, Rocca said, "I am sure that when it comes to the topic of Kashmir, the president will be urging both sides to exercise maximum restraint."

Meanwhile, Rocca denied that there was any underlying scepticism about Pakistan's commitment to the US-led coalition's anti-terrorism campaign and declared that the US wholeheartedly accepted Pakistan's support for the coalition, despite reports of continuing surreptitious Pakistani military support for the Taleban in Afghanistan.

"What President Musharraf did in turning a 180 degrees from the policies prior to September 11 are both recognised and appreciated," she said.

"It (Pakistan) is an active and helpful partner of our coalition and we are very grateful for that," she added.

She also dismissed newspaper reports and the recent article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker that the US was overly concerned about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear facilities -- that it would fall into the hands of the fundamentalist sympathisers of Osama bin Laden.

"I can say categorically, while repeating what the defence department has said before, that those stories are nonsense," Rocca asserted.

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