Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Tuesday, May 28, 2002 |
| International | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | International
The summit, aimed at averting a looming conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals, would be held on the sidelines of the Council of Cooperation on Confidence Measures in Asia to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on June 3-5. Mr. Safonov met with top Foreign Ministry officials after his arrival today and will hold talks with the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Abdul Sattar, on Wednesday. The three-day visit was planned earlier but acquired new significance after Mr. Putin's weekend announcement of the Kazakhstan summit initiative, officials said. Pakistan has said that it will ``respond positively'' to the proposal for talks to cool the row, centred on Kashmir where a million troops are now massed on the de-facto border between the two countries. However, India has been more guarded in its response, saying that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, would visit Almaty but there were no indications that the two leaders will meet. — AFP Vladimir Radyuhin reports from Moscow: Mr. Safonov's visit comes three days after Mr. Putin said he was planning to discuss the India-Pakistan standoff with the leaders of both countries, Mr. Vajpayee and Pervez Musharraf, in Kazakhstan next week. However, a Russian Foreign Ministry source told The Hindu that Mr. Safonov's trip was not directly linked to Mr. Putin's proposal as the visit had been planned months ago under a programme of regular consultations between Moscow and Islamabad. The source did not rule out that the Russian envoy could discuss the Indo-Pakistani crisis in the context of what Islamabad should do to stop cross-border terrorism. Mr. Safonov's main responsibility in the Foreign Ministry is anti-terrorism. The Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, said Moscow was not insisting on an immediate face-to-face meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan, suggesting that Russia would be content to hold separate discussions with the Indian and Pakistani leaders. If they (Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Musharraf) attended the meeting, it would give a welcome opportunity to hold discussions in which Russia could set out its position and try to influence both sides. The Russian Foreign Minister admitted that Moscow at this stage had no ready recipes for resolving the India-Pakistan standoff, because the situation was evolving very dynamically. At the same time he said the Pakistani missile tests were aggravating the situation by whipping up tension. The Russian initiative appears to have been coordinated with the United States. Mr. Putin extensively discussed the standoff between India and Pakistan with the U.S. President, George W. Bush, during their summit meeting in Moscow over the weekend, and Moscow said the two countries shared close views on the crisis. Our positions have more similarities than differences, Mr. Ivanov told reporters in St. Petersburg. We both believe that the crisis must be settled only by political means, through a dialogue between Delhi and Islamabad. The Russian Foreign Minister said Moscow and Washington agreed to closely coordinate the steps they took with each other and with other countries, including the European Union.
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |
Copyright © 2002, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|