New Delhi
18 June 2009
On a day when Hillary Clinton lauded the Manmohan - Zardari talks, Pakistan
announced that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, not Zardari, will attend the NAM
Summit next month in Egypt.
The decision rules out a second meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
President Asif Ali Zardari, who met earlier this week on the margins of the SCO Summit in
Yekaterinburg, Russia.
The sudden development seemed to confirm India's worst fears about dissension in the
Pakistani establishment, with Gilani, army and intelligence establishments on the one
hand and Zardari on the other.
Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit on Thursday told a news conference in
Islamabad that Prime Minister Gilani will lead the Pakistani delegation for the July 15-16
NAM Summit at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
Pakistan was represented at the last (September 2006) NAM Summit in Havana, Cuba, by
former President General Pervez Musharraf, who met with Prime Minister Singh and
agreed to set up a joint anti-terror mechanism.
An immediate provocation for Islamabad's change of heart appeared to be Prime
Minister Singh's blunt comments when he told President Zardari in full glare of
international media that his mandate was limited to telling that Pakistan should not allow
its soil to be used for terrorism against India.
Basit, however, sought to play down the development. "We said the next meeting at
Sharm El Sheikh would be between the political leadership of the two countries. It was
never said whether the President or the Prime Minister would represent Pakistan," he
told PTI.
For his part, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said it was decided
before the Bric Summit that Pakistan would be represented by Prime Minister Gilani at
the NAM Summit.
"Unfortunately the media is trying to twist something which is not there. It has been
decided earlier that at Sharm-el Shaikh, Pakistan would be represented by the Prime
Minister," Qureshi told CNN-IBN.
"It was decided at the (Manmohan - Zardari) meeting that the political leadership (of both
the countries) should connect. Now, it could be the President or the Prime Minister. So,
there is no ambush," Qureshi said.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she welcomed the India-
Pakistan talks. "As we have said before, the pace, scope and character of that dialogue
is something that Indian and Pakistani leaders will decide on their own terms and in their
own time," she said.
White House National Security Council Spokesman Mike Hammer was more effusive:
"We are glad to hear the (two) leaders had a productive meeting in Russia and hope that
they will continue to talk and meet regularly," he told PTI.
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