EuropaWorld 1/6/2001 Annan Gets Some More Good News

1/6/2001
Annan Gets Some More Good News
By Peter Sain ley Berry

It has been a good week for Kofi Annan and the United Nations. Two unexpected events - a hemisphere apart - have advanced the agenda and provided some uplifting news to set off against the catalogue of conflict and famine, environmental degradation and human rights abuses that fill so many reports of the UN's work.

First, came the entirely unexpected defection of Senator Jeffords of Vermont which changed the power balance in the United States Congress and can be expected to lead to easier relations between the United States and the World Organisation. The Secretary-General happened to on a business visit to Washington at the time. As he observed afterwards "obviously I had gone to Washington to see the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader; by the time I got there, roles had changed." Asked if he had come away from his visit more encouraged about UN relations with the United States, Mr. Annan answered in his usually understated way: "yes, you can say that," adding that he had had a very good discussion with members of both parties.

Then came the news, no less welcome for being unexpected, that the Indian Prime Minister had invited the President of Pakistan for talks in Delhi. Anything that leads to détente between the two nuclear weapon states on the sub-Continent has to be welcome. So much of South Asia's poverty (and consequent spiralling population growth) can be laid at the door of the massive military expenditures that each makes to keep pace with the other.

As Kofi Annan has reiterated, a resumption of a sustained Indo-Pakistan dialogue is very much in the long-term interests of both countries. It is a project that he personally has been working on, visiting both countries and quietly urging both leaders to adopt a statesman-like approach to their regional problems. Now the seeds that he has sown have sprouted. The news must have been as welcome as the cherry blossoms in the Memorial Gardens.

"The Secretary-General warmly welcomes the decision of the Indian Government to invite the Chief Executive of Pakistan to come to New Delhi," said one of Mr Annan's spokesmen. "He is encouraged that General Musharraf has responded positively to this invitation and hopes that a summit between Prime Minister Vajpayee and General Musharraf would be arranged without undue delay."

Both General and Prime Minister are, however, only too well aware of the need to carry their various supporters with them, including the fundamentalist religious tail that wags the body politic. It will take a whole mountain of confidence building measures before serious negotiations can begin on Kashmir, always the grit in the sub-Continent oyster. But nothing is impossible given sufficient goodwill. "Even a journey on the Eastern Counties Railway comes to an end sometime," it used to be said. So too can the devastating stand-off between India and Pakistan.