ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: Going by the past experience, it seems very likely that the 12th Saarc Summit opening here on January 4 may be overshadowed again by the wrangling over the anticipated Pakistan-India summit on the sidelines or immediately after the closure of the summit on January 6.
Officials and media-persons who had the opportunity to watch and cover previous Saarc summits in Kathmandu and Colombo, vividly recall that on both occasions not much new ground could be covered in as far as the substantive items of the Saarc agenda were concerned.
And that has been mainly because of lack of ready responses from India and Pakistan on significant issues in the economic sphere such as creation of South Asia free trade.
It is reliably learnt that Indian prime minister will arrive in Islamabad from New Delhi on the evening of Jan 3 and spend that evening privately, possibly holding last-minute meetings with his close aides, in order to tie up the loose ends before going on the following morning into formal Saarc agenda deliberations, and almost day-long tete-a-tete on the sidelines with Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and five other leaders heading their respective national delegations.
According to the Saarc agenda, Jan 5 would be spent in a retreat where all the seven member states will be holding parleys in informal and relaxed atmosphere (as far as possible) which may in any case enable the foreign ministers and secretaries to formalize the outcome for the approval of their heads at the concluding meeting on Jan 6.
As regards speculation about a possible meeting between Gen Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee, no official statement was forthcoming.
According to diplomatic and other informed sources, efforts for a Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting are being actively pursued behind-the-scenes, with significant interest from a third party.
New Delhi is stated to be deeply analyzing President Musharraf’s reported press interview to Reuters on Thursday in which the Pakistani leader spoke of the need to be bold on Kashmir to resolve this dispute.
Mr Vajpayee, who will be accompanied, among others, by his foreign minister Yashwant Sinha and national security adviser Brajesh Misra, will remain for about five or six hours on Jan 6 before flying back home.
Prime Minister Jamali will host a dinner on Jan 4 for Mr Vajpayee while the Indian leader will host a return dinner on the following evening. While there is no confirmation yet, it is surmised that President Musharraf may sit face to face with Mr Vajpayee at Mr Jamali’s dinner to his Indian guest.
Some leading Indian columnists had recently emphasized that in order to break the deadlock in resumption of high-level Indo-Pakistan dialogue, Mr Vajpayee should speak to the Pakistan leader who in actual sense calls the shots.