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CNN Live At Daybreak

Summit in Nepal to Start Late

Aired January 04, 2002 - 05:09   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In other news, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan will attend a summit of South Asian nations this weekend. But it's not certain if they're going to talk about their latest conflict.

CNN's Michael Holmes is covering the summit in Katmandu, Nepal -- Michael.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol, and good afternoon to you.

Yes, this summit a crucial summit, a much anticipated summit where India and Pakistan's leaders were going to be gathering. It was meant to start by, well, it was meant to start about a half an hour ago but it hasn't. Why?

Well, one of the major players in all of this, the Pakistan president, General Pervez Musharraf, well, he's running a little late. He overnighted in China on his way here to discuss some issues with Pakistan's long time ally and when he went to take off this morning to come here to Katmandu, there was a bit of fog around.

His arrival time got delayed and delayed and eventually they decided it was too late. So they put it off until tomorrow.

Now, that's no big deal on the surface of it, but what is perhaps a big deal is that tomorrow was -- Saturday here was going to be a retreat for the leaders of the seven nations attending this summit. And we're going to go about 30 kilometers from here to a very private area, just the leaders and extremely close aides, no media, no one to disturb them. And it was hoped in the international community that that would provide an opportunity for perhaps the Pakistan president and the Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, to rub shoulders and perhaps even have a conversation about all of this. Well, that is now off, of course, because the summit itself has been postponed. The hope now is that perhaps, maybe, the foreign ministers may still have a chance of meeting here. They've both been in town for a few days, though they haven't met yet. They did shake hands and that was considered something.

However, the chances of their meeting has warmed ever slightly. Initially the Indians were saying no, then they said maybe and then they said well, the Pakistanis haven't asked for a meeting. Pakistanis have said all along they'd be willing to meet, but now they're saying well, India hasn't asked.

So perhaps there's a willingness to talk but nobody's willing to pick up the phone and make that first call -- Carol.

LIN: How are they going to resolve this? I mean is this the usual dance, the political dance before a summit like this or does this mean that likely both sides are not going to get much done?

HOLMES: Well, the summit itself is a crucial summit for the region and one of those, the pity about all of this is that this summit has been overshadowed by the India/Pakistan crisis. They're here to talk about things like poverty and trade relations and the exploitation of women and children in this region. These seven nations, I'll point out, represent a fifth of the world's population. It's also the poorest region on earth and some half a billion people officially listed as being in poverty.

You walk around the streets of Katmandu, they don't want to hear about India/Pakistan. They want to know what this summit could have done about poverty. And it's detracted from the summit.

What will happen as far as India and Pakistan are concerned if no talks are held while they're here on the sidelines of this summit, then they'll go back home and no one will resolve anything. One thing they will find when they get back home is Tony Blair, the British prime minister. He'll be waiting for them. He's already in India and on Sunday is meant to meet with the Indian prime minister. Then he'll head over to Islamabad and talk to the General and see if he can calm things down.

At the moment, it's fair to say that things are still pretty tense -- Carol.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Michael Holmes reporting live from Nepal, covering that summit, as we will all throughout this weekend.

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