WASHINGTON, May 31: Indian Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, who is visiting the United States next week, is expected to have a drop-in meeting with President George W. Bush, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
Mr Advani, due to arrive in the US on June 8, is already scheduled to meet Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
Ms Rice told a briefing earlier this week that the agenda for talks with the two countries would be broad, reflecting Washington’s expanding relationship with both. “Indo-Pak matters will form an important part, but it will not be to the exclusion of key bilateral issues,” she said.
The talks with India, she said, would focus on scientific cooperation and trade, “and the fact that this is the world’s biggest democracy and we share a lot in value”. With Pakistan, said Ms Rice, the discussions would cover counter-terrorism, democratization process and economic development.
It is during his meeting with Ms Rice in the White House that President Bush is expected to drop in.
Mr Advani’s visit precedes a summit meeting between President Bush and President Pervez Musharraf at Camp David on June 24.
Indian diplomats say Mr Advani’s main mission will be to urge US authorities to mount pressure on Pakistan to dismantle what India alleges are terrorist training camps across the Line of Control that send guerillas into Kashmir.
Earlier this week, Ms Rice told journalists that the US remained “very engaged” and President Bush had been “very involved” in resolving India, Pakistan disputes.
Mr Bush, she said, had talked repeatedly to President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee about the current move to improve relations between the two neighbours.
AFP adds: The United States is “very pleased” with warming relations between India and Pakistan, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in Singapore on Saturday.
Wolfowitz said ties between New Delhi and Washington were becoming “increasingly close” and dismissed a suggestion that the US was courting India as a counterbalance to China’s emergence as a military and economic power, saying: “I think it’s important to have a relationship with a country like India on its own terms.”.
He told reporters after a meeting with Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes on the fringes of the Asia Security Conference here that the US appreciated India’s contribution to the fight against terrorism.
“We are also very pleased that there seems to be some progress being made now between India and Pakistan in improving their relations,” he said.
Wolfowitz noted that India-Pakistan ties were a hot topic during last year’s conference due to a “severe crisis” between the two nuclear-armed neighbours at that time. “So there seems to be some progress on the subcontinent,” he said.