President Asif Ali Zardari is coming to India for "religious" reasons - to visit a key shrine - but squeezing in a "private" lunch with the prime minister at his Delhi residence.
So sensitive is face-to-face contact for the two nuclear-armed rivals, they are still wary of holding official talks.
But there are hopes this visit could signal a slight thaw in their bitter relationship - at least in economic ties, after President Zardari promised to boost cross-border trade.
Pakistan's Zardari heads to India
Pakistan's president visits India amid warming ties
President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan visits India on Sunday (Today) -- the first by a Pakistani head of state in seven years amid thawing relations between the two nuclear-armed archrivals.
Zardari's visit Sunday, a private trip, comes in the wake of Pakistan's recent promise to grant India "most favored nation" trading status.
The South Asian neighbors have fought three wars, two of them over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, since the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into Islamic Pakistan and Hindu-majority, secular India after independence from Britain.
Last year, both nations pledged not to let their fragile peace process unravel again over the range of thorny issues that put them at odds.
After meeting her Indian counterpart in New Delhi in July, the Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, said she believed that "it is the desire and commitment of both the governments to make it an uninterrupted and uninterruptable process."
Their meeting came barely two weeks after three deadly explosions ripped through Mumbai, killing 27 people. The attack revived painful memories of the 2008 terrorist siege in Mumbai, for which India blamed Pakistani-based extremists. Pakistan was quick to condemn the 2011 bombings of Mumbai while New Delhi was careful not to point the finger at Islamabad.
In 2004, the nations agreed to negotiations that cover eight issues, including Kashmir, terrorism and Pakistan's concerns over river dams on the Indian side of the border, which it sees as a threat to its water supplies.
Since then, successive governments have held talks in an effort to end the historical acrimony.
Singh and Zardari hailed results from the dialogue in September 2008 as the countries completed four rounds of diplomatic meetings.
But engagements were suspended two months later in November 2008 after the terrorist assault on Mumbai, which left more than 160 people dead.
Over the past two years, India and Pakistan have held a series of high-level meetings in their bid to put their peace dialogue back on track, a process considered crucial to regional stability ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
In 2011, New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to resume talks.
"It's a win-win situation when Pakistan and India are engaging in dialogue, are talking to each other, and are building better cooperation," Mark Toner, a deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said Thursday regarding Zardari's upcoming India visit.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan, who met Singh on the margins of a nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea, last month, also invited the Indian leader to his country.
"Zardari has chosen a visit to Ajmer as a reason to be in New Delhi," Sanjaya Baru, Singh's former media adviser, wrote in a column for the Indian Express on Friday.
Baru suggested Singh "could choose a visit to his place of birth, the village Gah, as a good reason to go to Lahore, and maybe even Islamabad."
Singh was born in Gah during British rule over the subcontinent. Today, the village is part of the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf was the last Pakistani president to visit India, in 2005, upon invitation by Singh to watch a cricket match between the two countries.
"Nothing need come out of such visits. No joint statement, no agreements, no final solution. But each such visit and the ensuing dialogue will make it easier for both governments to walk down the road that Singh and Musharraf defined," Baru wrote.
Other observers also said the Sunday lunch meeting between the Indian and Pakistani leaders was encouraging.
"The lunch being hosted by the prime minister for a Pakistani president on a private visit is a welcome step," said Uday Bhaskar, a strategic analyst. "These gestures are in the long-term interest of India and that of the region."
Zardari visit: Separating pilgrimage from the separatists
Any political action during Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari’s day long lunch-and-pilgrimage visit to India will only be restricted to the closed door one-on-one with the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh. Kashmiri separatist leaders, who have been regulars during such important visits, will be conspicuous by their absence.
Since the former Pakistan president Farooq Ahmad Leghari, had, during a 1995 visit to India, chosen to make it a convention for visiting Pakistani dignitaries to meet separatist leaders, this would be the first time that a visiting Pakistan president would not be meeting any separatist leaders from the valley.
Pakistani sources have cited a “tight schedule” and the visit’s “private” nature to soften any political implications that are likely to be attached to these developments. However, official sources here indicate that the Pakistani establishment may have also kept in mind Indian “sensitivities” after what had happened during Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s visit to New Delhi.
India had expressed its strong exception to Khar’s meeting with separatist leaders during her July 2011 visit, and the then foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had even expressed concern at a joint press briefing. Rao had said, “We have a very different point of view on that event and we have expressed our concerns in a frank and candid manner to the Pakistani side.”
Post 26/11, India has viewed any such meetings with increasing
concern. There has clearly been a marked shift in India’s stand from the time they welcomed President Musharraf in 2005.
concern. There has clearly been a marked shift in India’s stand from the time they welcomed President Musharraf in 2005.
It was former Foreign Secetary Shyam Saran who had reportedly said, “Pakistani leaders come, they meet any Hurriyat leaders ...we are a democratic country, we have no problem with these kind of meetings.”
Separatist leader and Chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq told DNA that since Zaradari’s visit is a “personal” visit there is no scheduled meeting with the President. He also said that Hurriyat leaders have an invitation from the Pakistani government to visit Islamabad, and that he hoped President Zardari’s visit could create a “conducive atmosphere” for such a visit to happen, expectedly in April-May 2012.
“We think it is a positive development, and we hope some sort of a new beginning could be made, in terms of relations, trust building, on a mechanism to move forward. Sadly, there is no mechanism. Unless there is a political will ... It is such meetings that can provide a positive impetus to the process. Although it is a personal visit, in terms of India-Pakistan relations it is an important visit,” he added.
Official sources said there have been a number of requests from various people for a meeting with President Zardari, including the family members of Indian national Sarabjit Singh who is on death row in Pakistan, and also officials from the Haj Committee. “The decision to grant these meetings lies with the Pakistani side,” government sources said.
President Zardari would be accompanied by a 40-45 member delegation, which will include his “son Bilawal, a cousin, a businessman friend, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and other officials from the President’s office, including the Military Secretary”. There was no official confirmation till late in the evening about whether Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, or President Zardari’s two daughters Bhakhthawar and Asifa would also be accompanying him.
Official sources said most delegates will arrive in advance, and that would include President Zardari’s security officials, and media personnel. “The President would be arriving at 11:30 tomorrow morning with about a dozen people,” official sources informed.
Indian officials would include External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, and “some Members of Parliament.” Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, PK Bansal would be the “minister-in-waiting” and will accompany President Zardari through his day long visit to New Delhi, Jaipur and Ajmer.
President Zardari would have a working lunch with Prime Minister Singh at 1 pm on Sunday, which will be preceded by a “half-an-hour long” closed door meeting between the two leaders. He will then proceed to Jaipur and from there on to Ajmer where he will pay obeisance at the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti before departing the same evening for Islamabad.
No comments:
Post a Comment