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Disappointed US keeps a safe distance

The United States government publicly tried to put a positive spin on the failed summit between India and Pakistan on Monday, saying Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's acceptance of President Pervez Musharraf's invitation to visit Pakistan envisaged the continuance of the process begun in Agra.

Privately, however, senior administration officials expressed deep disappointment that though their expectations of the summit were minimal to begin with, they had not expected it to be such a flop that the two sides could not even come up with a joint statement, however innocuous.

The officials acknowledged that though Washington had strongly encouraged the two sides to resurrect the dialogue that had been stalled for the last two years, no one was under any illusion that the Agra summit would produce an agreement on contentious issues.

The US had, however, hoped that agreement would be reached on at least a couple of confidence-building measures, and that the two sides would thus jump-start the Lahore initiative that had been derailed by Pakistan's incursion into Kargil.

The total breakdown of the summit, senior administration officials said, was "obviously due to hardliners on both sides, and this is certainly disappointing. We hope that senior-level talks can be held soon, to at the least make sure that the positive atmosphere created through Agra is not dissipated."

State department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We strongly support sustained engagement at the senior level between India and Pakistan as the best way to address long-standing bilateral disputes and make real progress toward a reduction of tension and a resolution of their differences through peaceful means."

Boucher said the "reported agreement of the two leaders [following Vajpayee's acceptance of Musharraf's invitation that he visit Pakistan] for further talks gives us reason to hope that this meeting will be the start of such a continuing process".

Over at the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said President George W Bush had not spoken to either of the leaders during or after the summit, but had closely monitored the events.

Bush, Fleischer said, hoped the process that Prime Minister Vajpayee had resurrected by inviting Musharraf would continue with the latter's invitation to the Indian leader to visit Pakistan.

"It's a promising sign that the two parties are talking, and I'll leave it at that," Fleischer said.

Boucher and other administration officials have been scrupulously avoiding assignation of blame to any side for the breakdown of talks -- one reason being that Washington is extremely sensitive to the feeling in India that the US had arm-twisted New Delhi to invite Musharraf.

The rumour, incidentally, is believed by administration officials to have originated in Islamabad, in order to create the perception that the Bush administration was pushing India to the negotiating table.

Asked if he thought Kashmir should have been an integral part of the agenda, Boucher said, "We are not a party to the talks, so we are not going to specify the agenda."

Another official, asked if Pakistan's obsession with Kashmir at the expense of a broad-based agenda was what had killed the talks, said, "The contents of that agenda will be determined by the participants, which is India and Pakistan."

The official also said it was unlikely the US would have any further reaction to the summit. "To put out a more detailed and specific reaction would indicate that we are passing judgements on the summit.

"Remember," the official added, "it's a meeting between India and Pakistan, and all what we have been emphasizing has been that both sides resume their dialogue and try to restore the Lahore process.

"We think it's a good idea for them to talk and when they are talking, let them talk."

But another official admitted the die was cast that the talks would fail when days before the summit the large Pakistani delegation that included officials to deal with trade, commerce, culture and other bilateral issues was significantly pruned, but the single-issue hardliners on Kashmir were included.

"This clearly showed that the single-issue hawks would make Kashmir the only issue during the talks and that was a clear signal that the summit was doomed," this official said.

According to the official, however, India could have made some allowances in not insisting on implying that Pakistan was responsible for "cross-border terrorism" in the joint declaration that was not to be and acknowledging that the Kashmir issue was "a problem" that had to take into "account the wishes of the Kashmiri people" even if New Delhi had refused to state that it was a "dispute".

The US has consistently stated that the Kashmir imbroglio is "a dispute" between India and Pakistan that has to be resolved between the two countries politically, "taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people".

Washington's insistence that Kashmir is disputed territory and New Delhi has to take into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people has irritated India no end since it believes that the state is an integral part of India since the instrument of accession has, in its eyes, been clearly established.

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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