New Delhi, June 23
The Pakistan President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, is expected to get a taste of American carrot-and-stick diplomacy when he becomes the first South Asian leader to meet the President of the USA, Mr George W. Bush, at the Presidential retreat of Camp David tomorrow.
Western diplomatic observers here say that, by according this rare honour to Gen Musharraf, Mr Bush has buttressed the Pakistani ego before Washington comes down to brasstacks and extracts important concessions and promises from the General.
The Vajpayee government would be keeping its fingers crossed to see what Mr Bush does to address Indian concerns on Pakistan’s continued cross-border terrorism. Mr Bush is expected to convey to Gen Musharraf his roadmap of resolving the Kashmir issue.
Topping the US agenda would be issues like the resurgence of Al Qaida and Taliban cadres in Afghanistan and the covert support they are getting from Pakistan. Pakistan may also be told to send troops to Iraq as part of a Stabilisation Force.
Though the Bush administration would do nothing to abandon or even belittle Gen Musharraf who has done the American bidding post September 11, it is aware of the security situation in Afghanistan, where the United Nations workers are operating in just 30 per cent of the territory, as, in the rest of the territory, they are not safe.
The move to convince Pakistan to send troops to Iraq is bound to have a far-reaching political fallout for Gen Musharraf. The USA urgently needs international troops in Iraq, where, since the war has got over, one American has died every day.
The USA-watchers here say that Mr Bush would give some sops to Gen Musharraf to help him cement his position in Pakistan. The sops may include waiving off debts, removing some US sanctions imposed in the wake of the May 1998 nuclear tests, sale of strategic equipment or even more financial aid. However, Pakistan would be conveyed Washington’s unhappiness over the Pakistan Army and the ISI helping the Al Qaida-Taliban combine.
