India, Pakistan leaders say they won't meet at summit

NEW DELHI, India -- Amid fresh shelling along the India-Pakistan border and a steady exodus of foreigners fearing a war, leaders of the two countries departed for a regional security summit Sunday with little chance that they will meet to talk peace.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said "there is no such plan" for him to meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at a summit of Central Asian leaders in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that begins today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to meet separately with Vajpayee and Musharraf at the summit of 16 countries and hopes to persuade them to talk. On a stopover in Tajikistan en route to the summit Sunday, Musharraf expressed optimism that Russia, a traditional ally of India, could nudge India toward dialogue.

Vajpayee, however, insists the two sides have nothing to talk about until Musharraf stops what India calls "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir. New Delhi claims that the Pakistani military supports guerrillas who cross into Indian-controlled areas of the disputed Himalayan territory.

Musharraf claims he has cracked down on militants, but the United States and other Western governments are demanding more action to ease tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

Less than a year ago, the two leaders were smiling together at the marble symbol of eternal love, the Taj Mahal. That meeting, however, ended in disappointment, and now they are glaring at each other against the imaginary backdrop of a mushroom cloud.

Vajpayee, a Hindu poet, and Musharraf, a Muslim paratrooper, never had much chance of bonding at their three-day summit in the Indian city of Agra last July. But at least they were talking for the first time since 1999, when Musharraf, as head of the Pakistani army, directed an incursion into Kargil, in Indian-held territory, that brought the region to the brink of war.

The heavy fighting left hundreds of soldiers and civilians dead. At the time, Pakistan claimed the attack was carried out by guerrilla fighters, not army troops. Kargil created bad blood between Vajpayee and Musharraf, who later seized power in a bloodless coup.

Nevertheless, Vajpayee defied hardliners in his government and agreed to Musharraf's request for talks at Agra without an agenda. Bureaucrats and diplomats normally use prenegotiated limits on what can be discussed as virtual leashes on leaders when they sit down to deal with disputes as entrenched as Kashmir.

Musharraf, who was born in New Delhi but fled in 1947 to newly created Pakistan with his family, visited his ancestral home before the Agra summit. The open welcome he received raised hopes of a breakthrough.

Officials at the Agra talks reported that they were going well, without giving specifics. Rumors started that a landmark deal might be in the works.

As the final day of talks was set to start, Musharraf spoke to Indian news editors at a breakfast session. His remarks were supposed to be off the record, but an Indian satellite news network aired a videotape. It showed Musharraf saying Pakistanis didn't trust India's government and thought that it was stonewalling in the hope that the Kashmir dispute would go away.

With every tough line Musharraf delivered, the prospects of a deal with Vajpayee disintegrated. The two leaders couldn't even agree to a brief statement they were willing to sign. Indian pundits quickly attacked Vajpayee and his closest lieutenants for letting Musharraf win the media battle by making the Indian delegation seem aloof and unwilling to compromise.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will visit the region this week and hopes to get Vajpayee and Musharraf to start talking peace again. But he will have to find a way to crack the wall of distrust cemented at Agra.

For now, local newspapers and magazines are full of doomsday scenarios.

The cover of the current issue of India Today, the country's leading newsmagazine, features a photo montage of terrified people fleeing a nuclear mushroom cloud rising behind the India Gate arch, a New Delhi landmark.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright