NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 25 May — Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee headed to the hills for a brief vacation yesterday as fears of immediate warfare between India and Pakistan began to recede under intense international diplomatic pressure. Vajpayee’s decision to take a three-day break in the Himalayan holiday resort of Manali is seen by analysts as a signal that war is not imminent, despite the government facing severe internal pressure to launch strikes on groups based in Pakistan.
Also yesterday, the United States said it was disappointed at Pakistan’s decision to launch a string of missile tests, at a time of high tension with India. “We are disappointed in this,” said State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker in Washington. “They are fully aware of our position, we have made quite clear that we think, given the current situation, the focus should be on steps to reduce tensions in the region.”
India said earlier it had been informed by Pakistan that it planned to conduct “routine” short- and medium-range missile tests between today and Tuesday, but attacked the tests as “antics”. Pakistan said the tests were routine and had “nothing to do with the current situation.”
Leading the diplomatic thrust, meanwhile, was European Union Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten, who met in New Delhi yesterday with Brajesh Mishra, the powerful national security adviser and Vajpayee’s principal secretary. This was followed by a working luncheon with Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.
Patten is the first of three high-profile Western figures due in South Asia in coming days tasked with trying to cool down simmering tensions in the region, with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw due next week and US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage the week after.
Aside from visits by high-powered officials to South Asia, international role players have been engaging in a flurry of telephonic diplomacy. Reeker said that US Secretary of State Colin Powell had spoken three times Thursday to Straw. Powell, currently in Moscow with President George W. Bush, also spoke twice to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Reeker said.
Musharraf, who like Vajpayee faces domestic pressure to stand firm, said in an interview he did not want war. “We hope good sense prevails on all sides... We would like to cooperate, certainly, because we don’t want war,” he told the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Meanwhile, France has recalled all non-essential diplomatic staff working in Pakistan and advised all other citizens to leave the country for security reasons, the Foreign Ministry announced in Paris yesterday.
