Zardari forgets NAM after Singh slap

Singh

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NEW DELHI: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has opted out of the NAM summit in Egypt in an apparent bid to avoid meeting Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh who had delivered him a tough message on cross-border terrorism in Russia this week.Instead of Mr Zardari, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will now attend the NAM summit.

This latest development, which could be translated as a snub to India, comes after Prime Mr Singh met Mr Zardari on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Russia this week and delivered a tough message on terror in full media glare. Mr Singh had told Mr Zardari that his mandate was to deliver the message that Pakistan should not allow its soil to be used for terrorism against India.

This statement was made in the full glare of the media much to the embarrassment of Mr Zardari.
Nevertheless, both India and Pakistan after the meeting had announced that the two leaders would have a repeat meeting on the sidelines of the NAM summit in Egypt. The foreign secretaries of the two countries are supposed to meet to discuss the issue of terrorism before that meeting in Egypt. In fact, the Pakistani foreign office had also released a statement on Wednesday saying that Mr Zadari and Mr Singh would meet in Sharm-al-Sheikh in Egypt.

But this sudden change of stand once again underscores the different forces at work in Pakistan. Significantly, this latest development also comes after Pakistani foreign office on Thursday expressed satisfaction with the meeting between Mr Singh and Mr Zardari.

“The outcome of the meeting was satisfactory as the two foreign secretaries will meet in the future. We hope they will be able to look at all issues (between the two countries),” foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit was quoted as saying. He had also listed meetings between the foreign secretaries and the political leadership as tangible results of the Russia meet.

After the meeting Mr Singh had said that India would review Pakistan’s action against the terror infrastructure that was targeted at India. He had further said that the meeting of the foreign secretaries would tell India if Pakistan has taken effective action and plans to take action against the terror infrastructure.

But Mr Singh’s blunt message was clearly not well received in Pakistan. In an indication of the domestic pressure at play, members of the Pakistani Senate had said that Islamabad should react strongly to Mr Singh’s statement to Mr Zardari before the media. The Senate was also planning to move a resolution on the matter.

Zardari forgets NAM after Singh slap- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times
 

prahladh

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Oh no. If he would have only attended he would also received spanking from MMS. On a serious note is this what a leader should do, Avoid!.
 

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Mr Singh springs a cunning trap

Who would have thought Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh would have been such a sly old fox. And I mean that as a compliment.
Shaking hands with Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari yesterday in Yekaterinburg, on the sidelines of an international summit, Mr Singh made sure the journalists and photographers were still present when he declared: "I am very happy to meet you. But I must tell you quite frankly that I have come with the limited mandate of discussing how Pakistan can deliver on its assurances that its territory would not be used for terrorist attacks on India."
At that point, the journalists were ushered out of the room by minders from both sides and - the public point having been made very bluntly - the two leaders could continue with their private discussion.
As it was, six months after talks between Pakistan and India were put on hold in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, some genuine progress was made. Officials from the two countries' foreign ministries will meet within a couple of weeks, and then again at another international summit in Egypt.
It's not top-tier talks and they may be quite anodyne in themselves but they represent a start. Most of the Indian media believes that yesterday's discussions represented an "ice-breaker", following the attacks that left at least 164 people dead.
Pakistan is keen to restart talks with India, the Obama administration would like to see an improved relationship (so that Islamabad can focus fully on dealing with militants) and India too would like to see better relations. But Manmohan Singh, having been one of the leading advocates of rapprochement with India's long-standing rival, had his fingers burned very badly by what happened in Mumbai. He needs something in return from Pakistan, some sort of gesture that would indicate Mr Zardari and his colleagues are serious about dealing with those suspected of plotting the Mumbai attacks. That has not happened yet.
Today, as he flew back from Russia, Mr Singh said that if Pakistan had the "courage, determination and statesmanship to take the high road to peace", India would meet it more than half way. Until then, he noted, the relationship is likely to "remain under considerable stress and strain".

Andrew Buncombe's Asia Diary - Mr Singh springs a cunning trap
 

thakur_ritesh

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it was a well thought out strategy, world might call it what ever but there are times such snubbing is required when with all the wrongs the other side tries to paint the whole episode as if noting has happened or some minor incident has happened. prior to the meet, pakistan foreign minister had been running all over the town interacting with media and trying to give a spin to the meet by painting it as a all win situation for pakistan.

pakistan and the world with the us in particular would have been shocked with the change in tone that we all noticed at the start of that particular meet and one can only wonder how aggressively certain points would have been contested by the indian side in the meet. pakistan which had tired to show the meet as a major gain ended up with an egg on the face as it turned out to be a major embarrassment for them to the extent zardari is now shying away to have further meets with mr singh. what's more, even after all the media pr, diplomatic pressure from the us, etc, the agenda for the next meet was again set by india which again revolves around terrorism where in india will monitor the progress pakistan has made on their commitments and assurances to india on tackling the menace of terrorism sponsored by pakistan. they lost the plot pretty badly and were left with a red face and good to see that they were pretty well cut to size, this indeed is a much confident india than what we are used to seeing in the past.

i was disappointed when india accepted the offer to talk with pakistan at the highest level, but am mighty pleased to see all that has happened and where we still seem to call the shots in a diplomatic war where speaking from a the point of strength is a much required thing where the other is not allowed any leeway.

mr singh might have taken time to say what was required long time back but he certainly seems to have grown the much required spine that is so much needed at the top level so that the things are not taken for granted by the others. it all started with the indo-us nuke deal on the domestic front, then it was the turn of mr advani during the recent elections where the debate had touched the lows of making personal attacks where in mr advani was forced to applogise in all public glare when he seemed to loose the image he tried to build on when mr singh got aggressive and now this, all a reflection of changing times and if this were to continue, would certainly argue well for the top office of india and for india as a country.

no wonder singh is king!
 

johnee

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Singh is good diplomat, a really good one. Otherwise, he wouldnt have become the PM of largest democracy twice without contesting the elections. But we need more than diplomacy. I am not talking of war. But mere words are not enough. Pakistan has no shame, they will again play the same old tricks, we cant be happy by scoring some mere dimplomatic brownie points. We need to find ways to permanently fix the prob or make Pak pay for its mischief.
 

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