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CNN Live At Daybreak

India and Pakistan Attempt Peace Talks

Aired July 13, 2001 - 07:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: They each have nuclear weapons and they hate each other. Well, now they're in a bloody battle for Kashmir in the Himalayas. This weekend, the two enemies will meet in New Delhi and try to settle their differences by talking.

CNN's John Raedler sets the stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN RAEDLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For more than 350 years, the Taj Mahal has stood as a symbol of a king's love for his dead wife.

Now the so-called monument to love is to be the backdrop for a meeting of enemies.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani Pervez Musharraf will meet in the city of Agra overlooking Indian's most famous landmark. But many analysts predict the outcome of the talks will be less monumental than the backdrop.

BRAHMA CHELLANEY, PROFESSOR, CENTRE FOR POLICY RESEARCH: Because the two sides have been squabbling over the agenda rights up to the eve of the summit meeting.

RAEDLER: It will be the first meeting between leaders of the two countries in almost 2 1/2 years. During that time, relations between the nuclear neighbors sank to a point that threatened all-out war.

The major irritant: Kashmir, the territory they both partly occupy and over which they are in constant conflict. But expectations are low for any breakthrough in this long, intractable dispute.

CHELLANEY: For Pakistan, Kashmir is the core issue at the summit meeting. And for India, Kashmir is not the central issue. And having built a political consensus at home, on these two rival positions, Vajpayee and Musharraf don't have the political space to make any forward movement on Kashmir.

RAEDLER: During his 2 1/2 days in India, President Musharraf will make a nostalgic visit to his family's former home in New Delhi. This is where he spent his first four years before the family moved to the then newly created Pakistan. Awaiting him will be the family's former maid, believed to be now 90. "I'll go and hug him," she says, "ask him how he's doing and tell him it's good to see God has blessed him with success."

RAEDLER (on camera): Pervez Musharraf might have some apprehension about visiting the land of his enemy. But he is assured of at least one very warm welcome in what is also the land of his birth.

John Raedler, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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