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Kashmir impasse dampens Agra mood

A late night statement that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf "made it plain" to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that no progress could be made for normalisation of relations unless the Kashmir issue was resolved has come as a dampener after both sides had publicly stated that the discussions had been positive.

The statement was put out by Rashid Qureshi, the official spokesman for the President, and appears to have wrong-footed the Indians.

The two sides had agreed that there would be no statements until late Monday afternoon and, in fact, select members of the two official delegations are slated to meet around 10 am this morning to finalise the wording of a possible joint communique.

Qureshi in a surprisingly strong statement said, "The Government of Pakistan reiterates that Kashmir had been the focus of discussion in the 90-minute one-on-one meeting between the heads of the two states."

While there was no official statement from the Indian side through all of Sunday, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj did tell the media that the Sunday morning meeting between Vajpayee and Musharraf had covered a wide range of subjects -- a statement that is in direct contrast to Qureshi's statement that Kashmir had been the sole focus.

The resulting confusion has created an atmosphere of uncertainity in Agra. General Musarraf is scheduled to have a breakfast meeting with editors of major media organisations. Subsequently -- at least as per indications on Sunday evening -- Vajpayee and Musharraf are scheduled to have yet another one on one meeting, the final one in the series.

At this point in time, however, it is not clear whether the meeting will go ahead as scheduled.

With Agencies

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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