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| India-Pakistan |
| Faint hopes for India-Pakistan talks |
| 2002-06-02 |
| With the leaders of 16 Asian nations headed Sunday to Kazakhstan for a regional security summit, the focus was on the seemingly remote possibility of talks between the leaders of India and Pakistan. The window of opportunity for such a meeting is small. The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia is due to begin Monday and end Wednesday. Despite intense diplomatic pressure from several quarters, it appears unlikely that Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would hold any kind of face-to-face talks. Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said Sunday that he was hopeful the conflict could be defused after comments Saturday by Musharraf in which the Pakistan leader virtually dismissed the chances of nuclear war. "Confidence building measures" always seem to me like the third party knows something the beknighted natives don't, and that they're trying to demonstrate that there's good faith on both sides. In some cases there may be, in most I think there's not. So what if the lack of confidence is based in fact? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |