The Hindu : International : Aziz to attend SAARC summit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

International

International

Aziz to attend SAARC summit

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, DEC. 23. Pakistan today said the Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, would represent it at the SAARC Summit in Dhaka scheduled in the second week of January. At the same time, possibility of a meeting between the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, and the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in the `near future' has not been ruled out.

A Foreign Office spokesman, Masood Khan, told reporters at the weekly news briefing that a delegation led by Mr. Aziz would leave for Bangladesh. The possibility of a meeting between the Mr. Aziz and Dr. Singh would be discussed at the meeting of India-Pakistan Foreign Secretaries on December 27 and 28, he said.

Mr. Khan was responding to a question on the reported observation made by the outgoing U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, during the recent visit of Gen. Musharraf to Washington about likely contact between Gen. Musharraf and Dr. Singh in Dhaka.

Pakistan does not strictly follow the protocol of sending the head of the government to important meetings of various forums. Gen. Musharraf attends most of them. For instance though an elected government has been in place since October 2002, Gen. Musharraf has been representing Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly.

Political importance

Diplomatic observers here believe that it would not have been possible for Gen. Musharraf to attend the Dhaka SAARC Summit since officially Mr. Aziz is the SAARC Chairman. They believe that any contact between India and Pakistan at the highest level in Dhaka would not have the same degree of political importance.

According to sources in Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman's observations about possibility of a meeting between Gen. Musharraf and Dr. Singh was based on Indian statements that Prime Minister could visit Pakistan early next year.

Dr. Singh has already accepted an invitation from his Pakistani counterpart to visit Pakistan.

Mr. Aziz presided over an official meeting to review the agenda for the SAARC summit. He told the meeting, attended among others by Pakistan's envoy to Beijing, Riaz Muhammad Khan who is tipped to the new Foreign Secretary, that SAARC could play a catalyst role in the socio-economic development of the member states and poverty reduction in the region.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section