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Amid Rivalry Pakistan Sends Aid To Indian Quake Victims
WASHINGTON & ISLAMABAD, Jan 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistan's offer of aid to quake-hit India will do nothing to resolve their decades-old rivalry, but analysts here said Tuesday it could provide a badly needed tactical victory for Islamabad's image abroad.
After sitting on the tarmac for several days, a Pakistan Air Force C-130 aircraft left here Tuesday morning carrying tents and blankets for earthquake victims in India.
On its way to the quake zone, the aid will cross a border bristling with guns and animosities, the legacy of the neighbors' three wars since their bloody partition in 1947.
The fact that aid from Europe arrived in India before assistance from Pakistan, just a few hours away, is evidence of the diplomatic horse-trading that befuddles every step in bilateral relations.
Its belated departure Tuesday came after India contradicted claims by Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf that New Delhi had rejected the assistance.
"I did offer help but their response was a little unfortunate. They said they have plenty at home. They thanked us," the general said Monday.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee later said he would accept aid from "anywhere," including Pakistan.
"The world should realize that Pakistan is not always hostile to India. The relief offer will help the world know that we believe in harmonious and good relations and it is only fair to expect reciprocal gestures from India," Quaid-i-Azam University historian Aslam Syed said here.
"It should be taken in itself as a groundbreaking move for improving relations."
The diplomatic stakes are higher than usual amid ongoing peace moves on both sides of the border to resolve the festering Kashmir dispute.
India has claimed the moral high ground and the upper hand in world opinion with a series of ceasefires in the divided Himalayan state, although it has yet to agree to Pakistan's repeated calls for dialogue.
Retired foreign ministry secretary general Akram Zaki said Islamabad's magnanimity "may help on the diplomatic front, or it may not at all."
"I believe politics will take its own course ... The move may help make a good impact in general and may lead to a softening of the stance somewhat, but I am not very hopeful," Zaki said.
In New Delhi, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said he did not think a natural disaster such as the earthquake would necessarily lead to an improvement in relations.
"The Turkey-Greece experience is not exactly applicable here," he said in a reference to the easing of tensions between Greece and Turkey after Athens sent aid to its neighbor following the deadly earthquake in Turkey in 1999.
Singh noted that India and Pakistan had exchanged information about their nuclear facilities earlier this month but dismissed Pakistani offers to resume a formal dialogue as more of a "public relations" exercise.
"Our expectation is that Pakistan should give up compulsive and perpetual hostilities against India," he told an International Press Institute seminar in New Delhi on Monday.
While Singh downplayed the impact of the Pakistani offer of assistance, The Asian Age newspaper described it as a "positive sign, particularly as the two countries are engaged in the process of resuming dialogue."
After accepting Pakistan's second offer, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman meanwhile described Musharraf's statement that India had rejected Pakistan's offer of assistance as "a trifle misleading."
"No offer of assistance was declined ... We are in touch with Pakistan," he said.
Some analysts see India's backpedaling concerning offers of assistance as damage control in attempting to maintain the moral "high ground" against its neighbor.
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