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| Nuke-powered neighbours warm up to talk to each other through US remote control | | | ABID SHAH
Early times Report
NEW DELHI, May 11: An unmistakably US stamp on renewed diplomatic efforts to mend relations between India and Pakistan became conspicuous today. Foreign Ministers of the two neighbouring countries spoke to each other over telephone. They talked unusually long, for about 25 minutes or so.
And soon visits by Union Home Minister P Chidamb-aram and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna to Rawalpindi and Islamabad were announced for June 26 and July 15 respectively.
Significantly, the Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehhmood Qureshi called up his Indian counterpart on a day, when 12 years ago -- on May 11, 1998 to be exact - India had tested three nuclear devices at Pokhran in Rajasthan. These were soon followed by Pakistan by conducting its own nuclear tests. And, thus, South Asia or the Indian subcontinent had not only got nuclearised but also greatly changed in military and strategic sense.
Ever since the US has thought it to be its right to step in and control the two bitterly opposed nuclear powers and possibly to keep them on talking terms or to bring them to that whenever they are not.
Once seen in this backdrop, today's telephonic talk between Krishna and Qureshi appears to be remote controlled by Americans. Nevertheless, the two countries have to keep some pretence to keep this fact under wraps.
And even in case today's Qureshi's calling up Krishna is to be taken as a sheer coincidence with the anniversary of Pokhran nuclear tests (as all the parties involved in the talks or behind them may like this to be), this nevertheless is going to serve as safeguard in case US prompting for India and Pakistan to talk and sort out their differences becomes public. In such a case Washington can easily tell the world that it had to remind the two South Asian neighbours of their responsibility on a day that signifies the region going nuclear.
This time it is Qureshi, indeed, who rang up Krishna though it is mainly because their meeting has been billed to take place in Islamabad; and, thus, Pakistan had to extend invitation to Indian Foreign Minister.
Yet, the fact is that Pakistan has been under intense US pressure for past few days in the wake of the recently botched up plan to blow up New York's Time Square where Islamabad had to face the blame by Americans.
Obviously, Pakistan has not been able to shun the American admonitions vis-à-vis the resolve to fight terrorism unlike the case turns out to be when India points its fingers at Pakistan in the wake of similar attempts back home.
Thus, what is important this time is that Shah Mehmood Qureshi today assured while talking to Krishna not to allow Pakistan's soil for terror which has been a persistent Indian demand vis-à-vis its neighbour.
Yet Pakistan Foreign Minister expressed the desire for "substantive talks" between the two countries.
Significantly, the term substantive has often been used by Pakistan to include talks on Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistani refrain generally has been that "no substantive talks were possible without Kashmir". So in effect the Minister today again stressed this.
And before Krishna's visit to Islamabad, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is likely to be present in Pakistan along with Chidambaram during the SAARC Home Ministers conference, beginning from June 26 to report back Islamabad's plans for the July 15 meeting of Foreign Ministers of the two countries.
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