ISLAMABAD, June 1: The diplomatic and political quarters here are showing great interest in the Almaty summit as it takes place in the backdrop of a precipitous India-Pakistan standoff, a matter most likely to dominate the conference proceedings focused on regional security concerns.

A matter of strong speculation is that the two South Asian leaders, Pakistan’s Gen Pervez Musharraf and India’s AB Vajpayee, may after all meet face-to face, most probably informally, in the Kazakhstan capital, with active encouragement from the leaders of China and Russia.

Such a meeting at Asia’s principal leaders’ assemblage, it is widely hoped, could yield positive result in defusing the dangerous military standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbours whose strategic assets are located only minutes apart from each other’s reach by missiles and supersonic combat aircraft. Stationed eyeball-to-eyeball, the two nations’ armies appear in their most menacing mood.

However, no one can say with absolute certainty whether the arrogantly belligerent will after all meet following their display of hostile tempers against each other and that their bellicosity will actually ebb.

The redeeming factor at Almaty is expected to be an encouraging attitude by most of the 16 participant leaders in favour of a quick and sharp decline in the current peak level of Pakistan-India hostility.

Apart from leaders of Russia, China, Pakistan and India, the summit is to be attended by the heads of states of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Palestine, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, two top US government functionaries, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage are to mount a major, eleventh-hour push to defuse tensions between the two South Asian foes, as they are expected to visit Islamabad and New Delhi next week.

US President George W. Bush had on Thursday expressed his determination to ward off the threat to world peace by a nuclear conflagration when announcing his decision to send his defence minister to the region.

Mr Bush had said Gen Musharraf “must stop the incursions across the Line of Control.” Although, at the same time, the US leaders have valued Pakistan’s role in fighting terrorism in the region.

There is little doubt that the groundwork for any possible de-escalation in South Asia could be initiated ideally in Almaty and the fond hope is that Kazakhstan moot would serve as a propitious start for the process of defusing the volatile climate.—HA