PM will meet Musharraf in Havana during NAM Summit: officials

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf during the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Havana in mid-September, official sources said here today.

But they told UNI that it was still not certain if the meeting would be a mere formality or be susbtantive in nature, given the current stalemate in the bilateral peace process after the July 11 serial blasts in Mumbai which claimed over 180 lives.

Following the blasts, the Foreign Secretary-level talks between the two countries, scheduled for July 23-24, were postponed indefinitely after India made it clear to Islamabad that the dialogue process could move forward only if it stopped supporting cross-border terrorism.

The meeting between Dr Singh and Gen Musharraf is one of the five or six bilateral interactions that the Prime Minister will have during the September 15-16 summit and the only one with the leader of a neighbouring country, the sources said.

While the schedule for the meeting is still being worked out, the governments of the two countries have been in touch in this regard, they said.

Besides, Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Shiv Shankar Menon was also recently in Delhi for consultations with senior External Affairs Ministry officials on the possible meeting.

Dr Manmohan Singh himself had indicated earlier this week at a press conference in Bhubaneshwar that he was not averse to a meeting with Gen Musharraf, pointing out that a country could choose its friends but not its neighbours. At the same time, he had made it clear that there could be no progress in the peace process unless India was satisfied that Pakistan was taking firm steps to curb cross-border terrorism.

''As Prime Minister, it would be very difficult on my part to say that the peace process with Pakistan would continue when common people are made the target of cross-border terrorism,'' he had said at that press conference.

The spokesperson for the Pakistan Foreign Office had also indicated some days ago that a meeting between Dr Singh and Gen Musharraf was likely in Havana.

The last meeting between the two leaders was in September, 2005, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Before that, Gen Musharraf had visited Delhi in April last year to watch a cricket match between India and Pakistan. During his meeting with Dr Singh, he had reassured India that he would not allow Pakistani territory to be used for terrorist activities against this country.

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