By IANS,
Kathmandu : Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai took two different routes to fly to Bhutan for a South Asian summit that starts Wednesday, each man making a point in the process.
Karzai is transiting to Bhutan through New Delhi after staying in the Indian capital Monday night at the request of the Indian government for bilateral discussions on issues of mutual interest.
In contrast, Gilani will spend Monday night in Kathmandu.
Even as there is mounting speculation whether Gilani and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, the cold war between the two neighbouring countries has been underscored again.
Though India and Pakistan share a border, Gilani has chosen a substantially longer air route that will see him first arrive in Kathmandu and then proceed to northern Nepal, from where he will cross into Tibet and then proceed to the Bhutanese capital Thimphu.
The route also underscores Pakistan’s proximity to China while its relations with India remain distant.
In 2002, when the 11th SAARC Summit was held in Kathmandu, then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had taken the same lengthy route following bad blood between New Delhi and Islamabad after the Kargil war.
Now eight years and five summits later, things don’t seem to have changed much, at least where air routes are concerned.
While it is a known fact that the development of SAARC has been held up primarily due to the hostility between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, a thaw seems unlikely.