The Hindu : Russia hopes for breakthrough in Almaty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 02, 2002

International

International

Russia hopes for breakthrough in Almaty

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW JUNE 1. The coming meeting of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, in Kazakhstan next week is seen here as a great chance for Moscow to assert its new role in world affairs as a crucial link between the West and the East.

Russian diplomats have formulated two tasks for Mr. Putin in his separate meetings with the two leaders on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to be held in Kazakhstan's capital Almaty on June 3-5. His immediate goal is to reduce the threat of a military conflict between India and Pakistan and subsequently facilitate resumption of a political dialogue between the two nations.

Mr. Putin's discussions with Mr. Vajpayee and Gen. Musharraf is generally expected to be determined by the unambiguous stand taken by Moscow on the India-Pakistan standoff. Fully in line with the strategic partnership between Moscow and New Delhi, Russia has expressed strong support and solidarity with India and squarely put the onus for defusing the tension on Pakistan. In fact, Russia has been far more articulate in backing India than any other world power. It has appreciated India's patience and difficulties in facing cross-border terrorism, refused to halt arms supplies to India and demanded that Pakistan honour its pledge to stop terrorists from crossing the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir as a first step towards resolving the crisis.

Contrary to Western media reporting, Russia has neither offered to mediate between India and Pakistan, nor expressed any expectation that India would accept mediation. Analysts point out several important aspects of the Almaty meeting. It will be the first formal meeting of the Russian President with Gen. Musharraf.

It is also the first time since the current crisis broke out that the leaders of India and Pakistan will be together in one place at one time .The presence of the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, in Almaty, is another noteworthy factor. Granting Russia's close relations with China, Mr. Putin is in a far better position than Western leaders to persuade Beijing to stick to his neutral position in the South Asia crisis and, therefore, deny all-out support to its ally, Pakistan.

While the coming talks in Almaty have inevitably prompted comparisons with the Russia-brokered peace between India and Pakistan in Tashkent in 1966, experts say that the current meeting is set in an entirely difference global context. ``In contrast to the previous conflicts between India and Pakistan, the present crisis is no longer influenced by the Cold War confrontation between the East and the West,'' said Tatiana Shaumyan, head of the India Centre at the Russian Institute of Oriental Studies. "Today Russia is acting in concert with the West. This enables Mr. Putin to talk to Pakistan on behalf of his Western partners as well, and, on the other hand, to persuade the West to take a more determined stand on terrorism in South Asia,'' said Mrs. Shaumyan.

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