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'High chance' for Indo-Pak. summit?

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON MAY 20. While the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, was today reported in The Times as hinting at a "high chance'' of an India-Pakistan summit, Indian diplomatic sources sought to play down his remarks. They said he never suggested that a summit was in the offing and that, in fact, he pointedly refused to indicate a time-frame. Apparently, he was repeatedly asked when direct talks between the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, were likely but he declined to answer.

Asked in The Times' interview if Pakistan's stance had changed enough to make successful talks more likely, Mr. Sinha said: "They... realise that they have to live with India'' but added that it remained to be seen whether Gen. Musharraf himself had changed sufficiently. Mr. Sinha, who was here for a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), insisted that cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir must stop for any talks to succeed but suggested that this was not a formal condition for a dialogue. ``I have not heard anyone say that,'' he said.

The Minister said he had "no regret'' about his controversial comment that Pakistan was a "fit case'' for pre-emptive strikes if possession of weapons of mass destruction, a lack of democracy and support for terrorism were to be regarded as criteria for military action, as in Iraq. He said he was asked a hypothetical question and he answered "in the affirmative.'''Mr. Sinha was portrayed by The Times as a bit of a hawk saying that "for all the warmth of Mr. Vajpayee's initiative, his Foreign Minister conveys a chilliness towards both Pakistan and the U.S., together with a lack of room for compromise that raises questions whether Delhi has changed enough, too.''

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