Almaty, June 03: Hardening its stand, India today firmly ruled out a face-to-face dialogue between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf here saying that this was not possible till Islamabad stopped cross-border terrorism even as Kazakhstan offered to facilitate such a meeting. Nothwithstanding what other countries felt, there could be no dialogue till Islamabad stopped cross-border terrorism, minister of state for external affairs Omar Abdullah, who is accompanying Vajpayee on his four-day visit to Kazakhstan, told reporters here. “The Prime Minister will not engage in any talks with General Musharraf till violence goes down in Jammu and Kashmir and infiltration stops. We have not changed our position,” he said.
He was replying to questions on what would be India's position if Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev suggested that Vajpayee could meet Musharraf on the sidelines of the 16-nation security conference tomorrow. Abdullah said that the Kazakh President during his talks with Vajpayee earlier in the day had offered to make arrangements for a meeting between him and Musharraf.
But weighing pros and cons, it was decided that at this point in time, it is not possible to have any such dialogue given the present circumstances, Abdullah asserted.

Bureau Report