Heads of India, Pakistan Talk Face to Face

Giving a jolt of momentum to a long search for peace, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee spoke one-on-one with his Pakistani counterpart Sunday and met with President Pervez Musharraf today.

There were no immediate details on the substance of the Vajpayee-Musharraf talks, which lasted about an hour.

Earlier, Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha had described the planned encounter as a “courtesy call.” But Pakistani Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed predicted in an interview that the two leaders would agree on a framework for future negotiations between India and Pakistan on a range of issues.

“I think the meeting will be successful, in a positive direction, and there will be something on a composite dialogue,” Ahmed said, using a diplomatic phrase for direct talks on numerous issues, not only the disputed territory of Kashmir.

India has long insisted that Pakistan must end what Vajpayee’s government calls cross-border terrorism before bilateral talks can begin on broader issues such as easing cross-border movement of people and goods. Pakistan has called for discussions on wide-ranging issues.

“There can be no development in the absence of peace. There can be no peace so long as political issues and disputes continue to fester,” Musharraf told regional leaders at a dinner Sunday night.

On the sidelines of the opening of a seven-nation summit here Sunday, Vajpayee and Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali met for about half an hour, first with other officials in the room, then alone for 15 minutes, Sinha told reporters. The session took place nearly three years after a bitter breakdown in talks.

“There was a positive meeting -- very meaningful,” said Ahmed, Pakistan’s information minister. “But the important meeting is going to happen with [Musharraf].”

If a breakthrough agreement does come out of the session, both leaders will have to deal with hard-liners opposed to the concessions that must follow if India and Pakistan are to resolve the conflict over Kashmir.

Musharraf twice escaped assassination last month. Investigators have blamed the attacks on a Pakistan-based militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

Vajpayee is due to call national elections this year and has hinted he may do so soon. He needs the support of Hindu nationalists who insist Pakistan must surrender the portion of Kashmir it controls to India.

Since Vajpayee is 79 years old, in the event of victory some observers expect a handover of power to his hawkish deputy prime minister, Lal Krishna Advani.

Before arriving Saturday for the summit of the South Asian Assn. for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, Vajpayee was noncommittal on prospects for talks with either Jamali or Musharraf.

But Vajpayee’s most trusted aide, principal secretary and national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, came to Islamabad on Thursday, raising speculation that he was working to resume negotiations on Kashmir and other issues after three years of hostility.

Mishra attended the first half of Vajpayee’s session with Jamali on Sunday, along with foreign ministers from India and Pakistan and other senior officials. India and Pakistan almost went to war for the fourth time in 2002 after a December 2001 terrorist attack on India’s Parliament in which five militants killed nine people before they were shot dead. Indian leaders blamed Pakistan, which denied involvement.

Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors hit such a low point that the SAARC summit scheduled for last year was delayed until now. A series of confidence-building measures, including renewed air links and a cease-fire between armies facing each other in divided Kashmir, opened the door for Vajpayee’s visit to Islamabad.

The last direct peace talks between India and Pakistan ended in July 2001, when Vajpayee and Musharraf came close but failed to agree on a timetable for negotiations at a summit in Agra, India.

All seven South Asian leaders at this week’s summit stressed that the economic development they have long promised their people will be elusive as long as conflicts drain the money and energy needed to overcome widespread poverty.

About a quarter of the world’s population lives in the SAARC nations: India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, almost all of which are plagued by armed militants driven by political and religious beliefs.

Vajpayee, who has said that his trip to Islamabad is his final effort to make peace with Pakistan, emphasized that it’s time for the region to overcome age-old rivalries.

“Mutual suspicions and petty rivalries have continued to haunt us,” he said. “As a result, the peace dividend has bypassed our region. History can remind us, guide us, teach us or warn us; it should not shackle us. We have to look forward now, with a collective approach in mind.”