Last year's rapport was starkly absent at this summit
THE body language said it all. Just like the Male summit last year, the meetings between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan dominated the 10th SAARC summit. As one particularly cynical comment went, it was as if the SAARC summit was taking place on the sidelines of the Indo-Pak talks.
바카라 웹사이트But that's where the similarity with last year's meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries ended. As John Burns of the New York Times put it, after the meeting, "...both men described the encounter in diplomatic language that failed to disguise the enhanced mistrust that has set in since the nuclear tests." Last year Sharif met a fellow Punjabi, I.K. Gujral, and the two seemed to have developed an instant rapport. That it finally led to nothing is a different story.
Having been in Male last year, one remembers the moment when Sharif and Gujral emerged from their first bilateral meeting as prime ministers. They were visibly relaxed and the bonhomie was evident. They had emerged chatting with each other and stood side by side to answer questions. Sharif's first comment was that "the Indian prime minister is a good man and I like him", setting the tone for the rest of the question and answer session that followed. The body language showed they were comfortable with each other.
This time it was different. Both Vajpayee and Sharif held separate press conferences, answering questions in a brusque, businesslike fashion. The two had a one-to-one meeting for nearly 50 minutes without any aides in the Longdon Room in Taj Samudra, where the heads of state and government of the SAARC countries were staying. Unlike last year, there was no joint press conference. The first to meet the media was Vajpayee. Looking tense and tired, Vajpayee emerged to read a brief statement in which he described his meeting with Sharif as a "good meeting". The question and answer session that followed was even more brief, with Vajpayee refusing to get drawn into any long or detailed answers.
Sharif entered the room soon after Vajpayee left. Usually a relaxed and easygoing person, none of these characteristics were visible, though there was an attempt at humour when he said that "while political leaders' statements make your stories, the political leaders are made in large measure by your stories—so do make a good story out of this evening". He too had gone on to describe his meeting with Vajpayee as "good". However, just a day later in an interview to a local newspaper The Island, he said the outcome of his talks with Vajpayee was "zero", adding that the talks were a stalemate and "we are not here to waste each other's time". Strong words these to describe a meeting with another prime minister.