National

Rumsfeld, Armitage visiting India

By Atul Aneja

NEW DELHI MAY 30. The U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is arriving here next month as part of an intensified Anglo-American diplomatic initiative to defuse military tensions between India and Pakistan.

Without mentioning the dates, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Nirupama Rao, said Mr. Rumsfeld was expected here after the visit of the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, to the subcontinent early next month. Mr. Armitage will arrive in India on the evening of June 6 after a day-long visit to Pakistan.

Analysts here said the U.S. Defence Department was concerned about the possible derailment of its Afghan operations if a war broke out between India and Pakistan. Already Pakistan, Government sources said, had pulled out two divisions from the Afghan border and positioned them on the border with India. While one division has been repositioned in Rawalpindi, the second has joined the Army Reserve South (ARS), the strike formation deployed on the banks of the Sutlej.

The news of Mr. Rumsfeld's visit comes amid reports about U.S. plans to conduct a massive airlift of its troops and citizens from the subcontinent.

Diplomatic activity related to the Indo-Pakistani stand-off today saw a telephonic conversation between the French Foreign Minister and the External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh. Also, the Foreign Secretary, Chokila Iyer, met the Chinese Ambassador to India. The meeting assumes significance in the light of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit next week to Almaty in Kazakhstan for the CICA conference, where the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, will also be present. India wants the Sino-Indian border to remain calm as the troops who were deployed there have been switched to the border with Pakistan.

India has sought a meeting with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the summit. Rejecting the view that the meeting with Mr. Putin was likely to witness a Russian mediatory role in the Indo-Pakistani stand-off, the spokesperson said talks with the Russian President were part of bilateral consultations at the highest level. Ms. Iyer also met the Ambassadors of Nepal and Bangladesh, while the Special Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, R.M. Abhyankar, met envoys from the South-East Asian countries. The Foreign Secretary-designate, Kanwal Sibal, is in Madrid for consultations with the European Union.

Keen to retain the focus on terrorism, India took exception to Pakistan's attempt to "deflect" international attention by threatening it with a nuclear response.

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