Vajpayee-Musharraf meet informally

VS Chandrasekar & V Mohan Narayan

Kathmandu, Jan 6: After a second handshake, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf met here on Sunday informally for the first time in six months amidst tensions which the Pakistan leader called a breakthrough in their chill but was treated as a “courtesy call” by the Indian side.

Prime Minister AB Vajpayee shakes hands with Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf at the conclusion of Saarc summit in Kathmandu on Sunday.

Ending days of media hype in the midst of acrimony heightened by military build-up and diplomatic sanctions after the terrorist attack on Parliament, the two leaders met in a room in the Convention Centre soon after the concluding ceremony of the 11th Saarc summit already overshadowed by the Indo-Pak standoff.

As various versions went around as to the exact nature of the meeting, Mr Vajpayee described it as a “courtesy call” after Gen Musharraf called it an “informal interaction” hoping “it is a breakthrough”.

“Nahin, woh courtesy call tha. Bat cheeth hui, zyada nahin hui (no, it was a courtesy call. There were some talks, but nothing much),” Mr Vajpayee told reporters at an Indian embassy reception.

On returning to New Delhi, he dismissed the meeting saying “there is nothing much to say about it.”

The dramatic face-to-face came after two days of the two leaders and their foreign ministers being together at various opportunities provided by the summit.

In what may not have been a completely unexpected event, Prime Minister’s principal secretary Brajesh Mishra was seen handing over some papers to Pakistan foreign minister Abdul Sattar at the summit venue before the Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting which Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga claimed was arranged by her.

The desperate Pakistani side was in an upbeat mood after Mr Vajpayee’s rebuff to Gen Musharraf after the first handshake at the inaugural ceremony when Mr Vajpayee told him that while he welcomed the hand of friendship offered by the President it should be followed by “acts of friendship” and an end to Pakistani-sponsored terrorism in India.

Summing up the Pakistani mood, Gen Musharraf told newsmen that informal interaction took place between the two sides during the summit. “Well, I hope it is a breakthrough,” he said on the meeting held in the midst of other Saarc leaders before they left the summit venue.

“We were together closetted in the room. There were others. There was no one-on-one meeting. It was not a formal interaction or a dialogue. I would call it an informal interaction,” Gen Musharraf said.
He said his meeting with Mr Vajpayee and the interaction between the two foreign ministers would lead to resumption of a formal interaction between the two countries “in the near future.”

Pressed for the issues discussed between Mr Singh and Mr Sattar, Gen Musharraf said “they could not have been talking about the weather over Kathmandu...What could be more interesting than what is going on?”

— PTI