The Hindu : No plans to meet Musharraf now: PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 24, 2003

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No plans to meet Musharraf now: PM

BERLIN May 23. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has said he has no plans at present for a meeting with the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, despite a recent thaw in the two countries' relations, a German newspaper reported today.

``A meeting is not planned,'' Mr. Vajpayee said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Asked whether there would be other high-level meetings between the two countries in the coming months, he replied: ``Not immediately.'' Mr. Vajpayee has not met Gen. Musharraf since January 2002, and has spoken to him over the phone only once since. Both leaders are expected to attend next month's meeting of the Group of Eight leaders in France.

``The Pakistani Prime Minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, invited me to Pakistan,'' Mr. Vajpayee told the newspaper.

``In my reply, I stressed the necessity of the ground being prepared step by step for an engagement at the highest level to make sense.We must see determined and credible measures from Pakistan to end cross-border infiltration and to remove the infrastructure that supports terrorism," he said.

India and Pakistan have already announced restoration of their Ambassadors and landing rights for each other's civilian aircraft, suspended early last year.

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