Vajpayee8217;s spin doctors make major capitals their destination

Over the next few days, he is likely to go to Moscow to seek Russian support in blocking multilateral sanctions that the US, Britain and China want to press against India.

Two key meetings, of the Foreign Ministers of the P-5 the five permanent nuclear powers and the G-8 Italy, Japan, Germany besides the P-5, will discuss the Asian nuclear crisis in Geneva and Cardiff on June 4 and June 12 respectively.

Prime Minister AB Vajpayee8217;s other key aide Jaswant Singh is flying to New York on June 6, ostensibly to attend the UN General Assembly special session on the world drugproblem. He is, however, bound to have discussions with 8220;key interlocutors8221; on recent developments in South Asia.

Not since the mid-1960s has New Delhi launched such a massive diplomatic blitzkrieg. Apart from these high-level envoys, officials from the Ministries of External Affairs will soon fan out to the major capitals in an effort to explain New Delhi8217;s point of view.

Soon after China went nuclear in late 1964, India sent a special envoy to world capitals seeking 8220;security guarantees,8221; Vajpayee unusually admitted to Parliament last week 8220;but the countries we turned to were unable to extend to us the expected assurance,8221; he added. Consequently, in 1968, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Agencies add: British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has said that the G-8 meeting would take up the issue of how to start and fix up the parameters of a dialogue with New Delhi and Islamabad. He said any new post-nuclear tests dialogue 8220;must have two strategicobjectives8221;: making India and Pakistan sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT unconditionally and tackling the 8220;roots of tension,8221; an apparent reference to the Kashmir issue.

Meanwhile, in Washington, State Department spokesman James Rubin said that at the P-5 meeting in Geneva, the US would 8220;want to look at the long term problems of avoiding regional nuclear and missiles arms race and, relatedly to deal with underlying political issues between India and Pakistan, including Kashmir.8221;

Asked whether the US was going into the meeting on new ideas 8212; including plebiscite 8212; to resolve the Kashmir issue, Rubin said: 8220;The short-term answer is: Today is Monday and the meeting is Thursday.8221; India and Pakistan have not been invited to the meeting, he said.

8220;We want to make it clear to India and Pakistan that the combination of tensions including over Kashmir, with the nuclear testing that has occurred, is a volatile combination. It is time to get to resolving this problem in terms of America8217;sand other countries8217; specific ideas to do so,8221; he said.

According to a report from Tokyo, Japan has offered India and Pakistan to host a conference to discuss Kashmir, Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi said today. He added, however, that he had doubts whether both countries would accept the invitation.

In Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offered today to mediate between India and Pakistan to defuse tension, Foreign Ministry sources said.The offer was made in separate letters to the Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers, sources said. The High Commissioners of India and Pakistan in Dhaka were called to the Foreign Ministry yesterday to receive Hasina8217;s letters for their Governments. Sources said Hasina was willing to travel to New Delhi and Islamabad at an early date to discuss the situation arising out of the nuclear tests.