August 25, 2006	Friday	Rajab 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: It is not in New York but in Havana that President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may have an opportunity to engage in a dialogue.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not be going to New York for the inaugural session of the UN General Assembly, informed diplomatic sources told Dawn on Thursday. A well-placed Indian source also confirmed that UN General Assembly was not on Manmohan’s schedule.

This puts an end to all speculations about the Musharraf-Manmohan meeting on the sidelines of the UN session and shifts the entire focus to the 14th Summit conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana, Cuba, where both Musharraf and Manmohan will be leading their respective delegations next month.

The Non-Aligned Movement Summit conference, which will be attended by delegations from all 116 member countries, is scheduled for September 11-16 with the heads of state and government sessions on September 15-16.

Notably the upcoming Non-Aligned Movement summit will be the only multilateral forum this year where Musharraf and Manmohan will cross paths and which will offer the opportunity to the two estranged South Asian leaders to meet.

Although there is no official word about the possibility of the meeting, signals from Islamabad and New Delhi suggest that Musharraf and Manmohan will most likely hold talks on the margins of the Summit Conference.

Efforts are also underway through the back-channel to pave the way for bilateral talks.

Meanwhile, some diplomats are quick to caution that the mere fact that both leaders will be present at the Summit should not raise any expectations.