Search the Internet          Tips

The Guardian Blames Advani for collapse of talks

Most of the British dailies today prominently hit up the collapse of the Agra summit with one of them editorially suggesting that "such an impasse demands a political settlement."

Reporting on the collapse of the summit, The Guardian said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had planned to present a nine-point declaration late last night but after a day of tension and bitterness they could not agree on the words.

"It was insistence on the part of India to include the words cross-border terrorism and objections by the Home Minister L. K. Advani which prompted the collapse," it said.

The report quoted Pakistan's chief spokesman Major-General Rashid Qureshi as saying "it appears there is an invisible hand which is creating obstructions repeatedly."

"The joint declaration had been approved by the President and the Prime Minister. The two foreign ministers had approved it. But when they came back from Indian officials, there were changes," he said.

'The Times said that when the two leaders entered their fourth round of direct talks, the sides were close to agreeing to a settlement on Kashmir that would have paved the way for normalisation of relations between the two countries. Problems are thought to have arisen when India objected to including the word "settlement" without getting a commitment to end violence from Pakistan.

The final outcome of the talks was expected to include progress towards annual summits and biannual meetings of the countries' foreign ministers, at which peace and security, confidence building measures, Kashmir and narcotics and terrorism would feature, the report said.

The Daily Telegraph in its editorial said the first Indo-Pakistan summit in more than two years lasted longer than expected, raising hopes that the parties would conclude last night with a joint declaration on future bilateral relations.

"In the event, they could not agree on the wording and President Musharraf left the talks with little to show for his visit," the editorial commented.

"Vajpayee wanted a commitment by his guest to stop terrorism across the border between Pakistan and Kashmir. Gen Musharraf required in return a pledge by his host that the future of the state be settled according to the will of the Kashmiri people.

"To accept the first without agreement on the second was for the President to skirt the problem. For the prime minister, to cede on the second was tantamount to accepting the plebiscite for which the UN called more than 50 years ago. That was a step too far for a politician who has now twice taken the lead in trying to ease tension between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, by his bus journey to Lahore in 1999 and his invitation in May to Musharraf to visit India.

"Yet Vajpayee's initiatives should not detract from the validity of Musharraf's insistence that Kashmir's future be recognised as the crucial bilateral question. From that, future talks and confidence-building measures, from troop reductions to trade and cultural exchanges, can flow. Without it, there is no sure basis for peace," the Telegraph editorial said.

"Fortunately, the two leaders are due to meet again, for the drain on each of continued enmity is grievous. India's economy is better able to bear it than Pakistan's, but, by encouraging the guerrian pin down indefinitely a 350,000-400,000 Indian military and paramilitary force in Kashmir without much cost to itself. Such an impasse demands a political settlement," it said.

PTI

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report