ISLAMABAD, April 2: With President General Pervez Musharraf’s planned visit to New Delhi less than two weeks away, back-channel diplomacy is gaining momentum as an important meeting between aides of the top leadership of India and Pakistan is on the cards next week, it is learnt.
While from Pakistan it will be National Security Council secretary-general and the president’s confidant Tariq Aziz, it is not clear yet who will represent the Indian side. According to one report, it could be Satish Lambah, convener of the Indian National Security Advisory Board and a former high commissioner to Pakistan.
The meeting, expected to take place in Dubai, is aimed at drawing up an agenda for President Musharraf’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of a one-day cricket match that the president is going there to witness.
Preparations for the Musharraf-Singh meeting are already under way at both ends to see in which areas progress can be made. Although it will not be a structured dialogue, on top of the menu will be the Kashmir issue and the Baglihar dam dispute, sources said.
The hype created in the two countries about the president’s visit has put pressure on the leadership in the two countries to show some significant outcome of their second meeting.
The president is scheduled to leave for India on a three-day visit on April 16. His mother will accompany him on the special invitation of the Indian prime minister. President Musharraf last met Prime Minister Singh on Sept 24, 2004 on the fringes of the UN General Assembly session in New York.
It is believed that since then the two leaders have kept in touch through back channel to keep the peace process going. Although on the official front it may seem ‘all quiet’ on the question of finding possible solutions to the Kashmir issue, discussions between the two countries are continuing through unofficial channels, it is learnt. President Musharraf has also been in touch with India’s ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi through a common friend, sources close to the president say.
