The Hindu : Gujral suggests PM, Musharraf meet in Almaty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 01, 2002

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Gujral suggests PM, Musharraf meet in Almaty

By Atul Aneja

NEW DELHI MAY 31. Without advocating immediate talks, the former Prime Minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, has proposed an "ice breaking'' meeting between the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, on the sidelines of next week's international security summit in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Visibly concerned about the possible repercussions of the on-going Indo-Pak. military stand-off, Mr. Gujral, in an exclusive interview to The Hindu, was emphatic that the Prime Minister could utilise a preliminary contact with Gen. Musharraf to "highlight the common threat posed by terrorism to the civil society of both India and Pakistan. We should then wait for his (President Musharraf's) response'' before taking any further step.

Mr. Gujral felt that the Prime Minister should, on the margins of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), hold crucial bilateral discussions with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and, if possible, with the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, apart from engaging the Central Asian heads at Almaty. "All diplomatic options have to be exhausted. War is a desperate last option,'' he observed. Advocating a three-stage "road map'' that can lead to a phased reduction of tensions between India and Pakistan, Mr. Gujral felt that "participants in Almaty can make Pakistan understand that terrorism like chastity is indivisible.''

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