NEW DELHI, July 21: The United States will abstain from voting on an IMF loan to Pakistan when the matter comes up in Washington tonight, thereby setting the stage for the visit of US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to Islamabad beginning today.Talbott and his team left the Capital this afternoon after a wrap-up round of talks with the Indian side, led by the Prime Minister's special emissary Jaswant Singh, as well as a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. But contradictory signals seemed to be emerging from Talbott's visit here, even as both nations run the last lap before tying up their bilateral deal in Washington next month.Jaswant Singh, in fact, will be leaving later this week for the meeting of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF), the security organisation of the Asean nations, where he is likely to continue the Indo-US dialogue in a bilateral meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. From the Philippines he will go to Colombo to assist the Prime Minister at the Saarcsummit. Interestingly, India is also likely to support the IMF loan to Pakistan, a move officials here said was ``routine but unusual.'' They explained that it was not uncommon for New Delhi and Islamabad to cooperate strategy in multilateral fora, like the WTO.Similarly on the IMF, India and Pakistan had in the past always supported each other's cases for loans, and tonight's vote was not expected to be different. Nevertheless, the officials agreed that in the post-Pokhran scenario it was ``interesting'' that the two countries could still collaborate in international fora.The officials, however, pointed out that it was ``highly significant'' that the US was abstaining on the $1.56 billion third tranche of the IMF loan to Pakistan, which virtually saves Pakistan not only the international embarrassment from defaulting on its debt payments, but also saves face for the Nawaz Sharif leadership.``The US is doing this to save Pakistan, to prevent it from falling apart. Even when Washington eventuallylifts sanctions to both countries, it will do so keeping Pakistan, not India, in mind,'' the officials said.Vajpayee is believed to have obliquely brought this perception to the notice of Talbott when he met him on Monday evening, the officials said. ``It will now be interesting to see if the US abstains on IMF loans to India in the future or not,'' they added.The so-called ``evenhandedness of approach'' to both India and Pakistan on the part of Washington is causing significant uneasiness here, especially since New Delhi feels it is having to bear the brunt of not only cross-border terrorism but also the main burden of nuclear tension in the subcontinent.Talbott and his team are believed to have been told, for example, that Pakistan rejected out of hand an offer on `no-first use' strikes.Singh and Talbott are said to have agreed on how the bilateral deal will play itself out, but the sticking point still remains on who will make the first move. Both sides insist they need face-savers, thereforethe possibility exists that the deal may be so structured that each simultaneously gets a little from the other side.The US still wants India to make a public declaration or commitment to signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and wants it to do it ``soon, within the next 3-4 months.'' After that happens it is offering a Presidential visit, perhaps ``at the end of this year or early next year.''The quid pro quos on transfer of technology and signing and ultimately ratifying the Treaty could then follow an agreed-upon schedule.Sources here said that while New Delhi in principle has agreed that it will eventually sign the CTBT, the Prime Minister ``gave no concrete assurances'' to Talbott. Vajpayee is instead believed to have reiterated India's position on the voluntary moratorium on testing, promised ``never to transfer technology to other countries'' and indicated that New Delhi would ``need something'' before the CTBT signature takes place.
