PM downplays Havana hype: ‘Don’t expect much from my meeting with Musharraf’

He said it was too early to say if there would be a joint statement, but did not rule out the possibility either. Pressed for details, he said the meeting was on the sidelines of a summit, and therefore it was “not possible to discuss all problems on earth.”

Singh refused to be drawn into responding to Musharraf’s comments in Brussels that Pakistan was not going to make any concessions on Kashmir and wanted India to take the initiative.

He said: “I don’t want to indulge in any public discussion with Musharraf, and I look forward to discussing serious business with him in the limited time we have.”

Musharraf arrived shortly before the Prime Minister’s plane touched down at Jose Marti International Airport.

The talks will be the first to be held after relations between the two countries went cold following the bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed 187 people. Indian officials say that to look for breakthroughs on foreign soil in a meeting like this would be expecting too much and that even if the structured dialogue process is revived, it should be taken as a positive outcome. Singh last met Musharraf in New York on the sidelines of the UNGA last year.

Ever since, and before the Mumbai blasts sent bilateral ties into the cold storage, speculation had been rife about the possibility of the Indian PM visiting Islamabad. It is significant that Shiv Shankar Menon, the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad is moving to Delhi as Foreign Secretary. Menon is said to have played an important part in the thawing of relations between the two neighbours in January 2004.

His presence in Havana, and then taking charge as Foreign Secretary is said to be seen as an advantage for the “peace process” at this difficult time. The first of a series of interactions the PM has planned on the sidelines of the Summit was with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. It lasted about 10 minutes.

Earlier, the PM had said that as a signatory to the Nuclear NPT, Iran had all the rights to peacefully use nuclear energy and...