Another Indo-Pak. meeting

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI, AUG. 20. The first political contact between India and Pakistan after the Agra summit last month will take place when the Pakistan Commerce Minister, Mr. Razzak Abdul Dawood, arrives here later this week.

Mr. Dawood is coming to attend a ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. The meeting of the SAARC Commerce Ministers has been convened by India on short notice earlier this month.

The objective of the meeting is to coordinate the South Asian positions before a crucial meeting of the World Trade Organisation at Doha later this year.

Although Mr. Dawood's visit takes place in the multilateral context of the SAARC process and is focussed on global trade issues, it provides an important opportunity for direct high- level communication between the two governments.

The divisive domestic debate in India on the Government's handling of the Agra summit may have sent mixed signals to Islamabad about India's willingness to engage Pakistan at the highest level.

A series of recent statements from senior Pakistani officials have expressed disappointment at the lack of a formal Indian decision on the next meeting between the two heads of government at the earliest possible occasion.

The indications here are that the Government is actively considering a meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in New York on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly next month.

Bilateral consultations between Mr. Dawood and the Indian leadership could help remove misperceptions if any on either side on future engagement between the two leaders.

Mr. Dawood's visit is significant for other reasons as well. It marks the revival of the SAARC process at the political level. This is the first ministerial meeting of the SAARC since the Kargil confrontation in the summer of 1999 stalled the functioning of the regional forum.

Mr. Dawood's trip could also act as a spur to the broadening of the bilateral agenda beyond Kashmir and nuclear confidence- building measures.

On the eve of the Agra summit there was considerable expectation in New Delhi that Gen. Musharraf's visit could open the door for reviving commercial bilateral engagement. Before the summit, India also announced some unilateral trade concessions to Pakistan.

With Gen. Musharraf deciding to focus almost exclusively on Kashmir during his visit to India, he chose not to bring any Minister other than his Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdus Sattar.

Although Mr. Murasoli Maran, Commerce Minister, was in the Indian delegation to Agra, his counterpart, Mr. Dawood, was not in the Pakistani delegation. This week the two leaders will have an opportunity to exchange views on trade issues at the regional and global level.

But Messrs Maran and Dawood should know that as two large neighbours who cannot do business with each other, India and Pakistan will not be taken seriously when they thunder against the discriminatory global order at Doha in November.

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