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Tarun Basu in St Petersburg
Barring any last-minute change of heart by India, a meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New York is being ruled out, though both will be there on November 10 and 11.
A meeting between the two was certainly on the cards in early September, according to diplomatic sources. Even the date, time and place of the meeting had been finalised after Musharraf sent feelers through his commerce minister that he would like to meet Vajpayee when both attend the United Nations General Assembly.
Then came the September 11 terror assault in New York and Washington following which Vajpayee postponed his visit on the request of US authorities. So did Musharraf.
When the Vajpayee visit to New York was rescheduled for November, the US quickly took the opportunity to invite him to Washington for a meeting with President George Bush. His visit was announced by Secretary of State Colin Powell when he visited New Delhi last month.
The Indian prime minister arrived in St Petersburg on Sunday evening on a four-day official visit to Russia from where he goes to Washington for a meeting with Bush on November 9. He is scheduled to address the UNGA the next day in New York.
But the Indian mood hardened after the horrendous October 1 terrorist attack on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly building that killed 38 people.
The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, which the US State Department has branded a foreign terrorist organisation along with the Lashker-e-Tayiba, another Pakistan-based group, accepted responsibility for the outrage. But it later retracted its statement.
Vajpayee, before leaving New Delhi, had ruled out a meeting saying in the atmosphere of violence being perpetrated by Pakistan in Kashmir, there was no point in resuming the dialogue with Islamabad.
Musharraf, according to sources, tried his best to seek an invitation from the White House. But what he got instead was only an invitation to dinner from Bush in New York on November 10.
Vajpayee, also in town that day, would be attending an Indian community reception not far from where Musharraf would be meeting Bush that night.
He leaves for London on the evening of November 11. The prime minister's morning engagements are however not being made public.
Indo-Asian News Service
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