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CNN Live At Daybreak

Blair in Pakistan Trying to Diffuse Tensions

Aired January 07, 2002 - 05:07   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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is engaging in shuttle diplomacy this morning. He's trying to defuse tensions between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan.

CNN's Tom Mintier is covering Mr. Blair's visit to Islamabad today -- Tom, has he arrived yet?

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, Mr. Blair arrived about 90 minutes ago here in Islamabad. He has already held a meeting with Afghan women and held a press conference at the American Center here in downtown Islamabad.

Now, Mr. Blair's mission here, indeed, on his agenda, really started in New Delhi. He held a meeting there with the Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and then he had a phone conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush that lasted about 15 minutes, got on his plane and is now in Islamabad for a meeting later in the day with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Then they will issue a joint statement together later this evening here in Islamabad and we will see if, indeed, anything that he brings with him, either from George W. Bush or from Prime Minister Vajpayee bears fruit as far as negotiations go to defuse the tensions that are running very high now between India and Pakistan.

So Mr. Blair is indeed in town. He will be holding meetings with President Musharraf later in the afternoon and then, as I said before, we expect to hear from not only the British prime minister but the Pakistani president as well on his mission and how it's going.

In talking about Afghanistan at the press conference, he did say that the military campaign conducted by the U.S.-led coalition was successful, that al Qaeda is no longer operating as an organization inside Afghanistan, that the thousands of terrorists who came through those training camps no longer have the ability to do so and he also said that the Taliban is no more and that could be not only a good thing for the people of Afghanistan, but the entire region.

So we're watching Mr. Blair's visit and his steps very closely to see what he is able to accomplish here, if anything, regarding the tensions between India and Pakistan -- Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: Tom, is he sort of paving the way for an envoy to go to ease the tensions between Pakistan and India? MINTIER: Well, I think it's clear that the United States wanted to wait until after the summit meeting in Katmandu, Nepal before even saying they would name a special envoy to come to the region. I think it's probably going to be a good possibility that one will be named, one will be dispatched and if there is, indeed, any shuttle diplomacy to go on between New Delhi and Islamabad, it will probably be done by that U.S. special envoy.

It's interesting that Mr. Blair had a scheduled visit to travel to New Delhi and basically took on this additional task of trying to defuse the tensions.

We'll just have to wait to see in the next 12 hours if he's successful.

COSTELLO: OK, thank you.

Tom Mintier reporting live for us this morning.

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