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India yet to decide on bilateral meeting with Pak.
By C. Raja Mohan
The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh with the Foreign Secretary, Ms. Chokila Iyer, at the opening of the 20th session of the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting in Kathmandu on Wednesday.
KATHMANDU, JAN. 2. The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, had a couple of close encounters with his Pakistani counterpart, Mr. Abdul Sattar, here today but the much-anticipated substantive consultations between the two leaders, if at all, might have to wait for another day.
There will be opportunities for the two Ministers to interact in the next few days as the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) unfolds. All of them will be in a multilateral setting. The Indian side is yet to make up its mind on whether Mr. Singh should have a separate bilateral meeting with Mr. Sattar.
As every encounter here between Mr. Singh and Mr. Sattar gets highlighted by the media, India might find it increasingly hard to sustain the diplomatic difference between the civility that is extended to each other in multilateral settings and a serious bilateral conversation.
The world would like to see the Ministers talk to each other seriously and take the first steps towards a de-escalation of the current military deployment by India and Pakistan. And Mr. Sattar is making no secret of his desire for a substantive engagement with Mr. Singh on the margins of the SAARC summit.
Pakistani officials are raising expectations tonight about the ``ice melting'' between the Ministers. Mr. Ashfaq Ahmad Gondal, Principal Information Officer of Pakistan, told a few presspersons this evening that the two Ministers would be at the same dinner table tonight and that ``it is not possible they will not talk''.
India, however, is not showing its hand yet. If it comes up with an assessment that Pakistan is creating a ``conducive atmosphere'' for the talks by taking effective measures against terrorism, there might yet be a serious conversation between the Ministers over the next few days.
Mr. Singh and Mr. Sattar shook hands when they came face to face at the informal consultations of the SAARC Council of Ministers that convened here today. The brief informal chat among the Ministers is a tradition at the SAARC ministerial meetings and lasted about 20 minutes.
Later, they were both present at a dinner hosted by the Nepalese Finance Minister, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat. The Ministers are believed to have exchanged pleasantries, but there were no reports of any substantive talks between the two sides.
With the media spotlight riveted on the likelihood of an Indo-Pak dialogue here, the Indian officials were at pains to point out that Mr. Singh was here ``principally and primarily'' to attend the meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers.
Asked to comment on the Pakistani demand for evidence before handing over the terrorists wanted by India, the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Ms. Nirupama Rao, said, ``Such a refrain does not create a climate conducive to a dialogue.''
Mr. Singh arrived from Lucknow on a special aircraft this afternoon in time for the scheduled meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers. He also called on the Nepal Prime Minister, Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers continued with housekeeping chores for the SAARC summit. The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Mr. Tyronne Fernando, handed over charge to Dr. Mahat, who is leading the Nepalese delegation to the conference.
Dr. Mahat reminded the Foreign Ministers of the importance of rising to the new challenges from globalisation and pressing ahead with advances in the social sector. The Ministers reviewed the work done so far by the Foreign Secretaries.
A drafting committee, involving officials, is working late tonight under the guidance of the Ministers to give final touches to the `Kathmandu Declaration' that will be issued by the heads of government at the end of this week.
Officials here said the discussions on the future agenda of the SAARC had been productive. After two decades of drift, there is a growing opinion within the organisation for a rapid movement towards regional economic integration.
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