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Pakistan Press: India Ruins Agra Summit
The two-day Agra summit between President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister AB Vajpayee collapsed over the Kashmir issue on Monday night, despite five long and arduous one-to-one rounds between the two leaders and hours of discussions between the two delegations.
A 80-minute last minute late-night round between the two leaders failed to break the deadlock, created basically by the obduracy and refusal of the Indians to be reasonable and accept even a diluted mention of Kashmir in the proposed joint Agra Declaration.
According to the Indians, however, the summit was doomed after President Musharraf's frank and candid press talk to Indian editors dubbed by their media as "Musharraf's breakfast bellicosity."
An Indian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao, in a one line announcement immediately after Musharraf had left the Jaypee Palace Hotel in Agra said: "I am disappointed to inform you that although the commencement of a process and the beginning of a journey has taken place, the destination of an agreed joint statement has not been reached."
The spokeswoman did not take any questions when a Pakistani journalist asked why had the Indians stopped President Musharraf to address a news conference at the conference hall. She announced that a press conference would be held on Tuesday morning and senior Indian officials will give details of what happened.
President Musharraf and Vajpayee held several one-on-one meetings on Monday and the foreign ministers and foreign secretaries of the two countries held two more sessions, but official spokesmen had started speaking of "difficulties" in drafting the "agreement" much earlier.
The Indians wanted the cross border terrorism issue mentioned clearly in the joint declaration and Pakistan wanted a definite mention of Kashmir as the main issue and some mention of including the Kashmiris in the process at any later stage.
President Musharraf had earlier in the day stated very clearly before the Indian editors that the Kashmiris would have to be made a party and this had to be mentioned in any declaration as "declarations are for ever and not valid for one day or a week or a year."
Officials said the talks collapsed dramatically after both President Musharraf and PM Vajpayee had approved the joint declaration and the two foreign ministers had also okayed but officials raised objections which could not be sorted out, despite the last ditch efforts by the two leaders late into the night.
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