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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ed Huang who wrote (5403)	2/5/2003 9:24:24 AM
From: Bill	Respond to of 25898

File this one in the category of Monica under the desk while Clinton was being briefed on N. Korea, and Jimmy Carter consulting with Amy about the Palestinian-Isreali conflict. -g-

To: Ed Huang who wrote (5403)	2/5/2003 9:40:54 AM
From: Ed Huang	Respond to of 25898

Pakistan's Musharraf Holds Rare Talks with Putin Wed February 5, 2003 05:58 AM ET By Oliver Bullough MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian and Pakistani leaders held rare talks Wednesday, but the Kremlin took care to reassure its major arms client India that the first trip to Moscow by a Pakistani head of state in 20 years did not threaten their ties. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told reporters he was confident his three-day visit to Russia would be a success, after his arrival Tuesday. The two countries have a weight of historical antipathy to shake off -- Pakistan supported anti-Soviet forces during the 1980s Afghan war, and Russia accuses some Pakistanis of supporting Muslim separatists in its southern Chechnya region. "The main aim of the Pakistani leader is to melt the ice in Russian-Pakistani relations," the Russian daily Kommersant said. The Kremlin said that as Musharraf arrived, President Vladimir Putin spoke to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by telephone, assuring him that talks with Pakistan would not produce any shift in Russia's global priorities. Russia has traditionally close links with India -- Pakistan's historic foe with whom it has fought two wars over Kashmir -- and is Delhi's main arms supplier. More than 70 percent of India's military hardware comes from Russia. "The Russian side hopes that this meeting (with Pakistan) will help create a multi-polar world, which would be a guarantee of strategic stability," the Kremlin said a statement before Musharraf went into talks with Putin. But, in a clear reference to India, it said political cooperation with Pakistan "must go on without harming relations with our traditional partners." Analysts expected the Russian-Pakistan meeting to yield concrete results only in trade, where there is clear room for expansion. Russia and India traded goods and services worth $1.12 billion in 2001, while Russia-Pakistan trade accounted for a mere $56.7 million, according to state statistics. "While there will be general talk about Kashmir, Iraq and the war against terrorism, a concrete foundation for future cooperation will be built on two sectors -- energy and weapons," said U.S.-based Stratfor's Global Intelligence Report. Pakistan is seen as wanting to exploit Russian oil and gas companies' know-how to expand its own production and to build pipelines to link it to the producers of Central Asia. reuters.com