ISLAMABAD: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is likely to get a lukewarm reception when he lands here on Monday on his second trip to Pakistan in about four months amid an aggravating diplomatic row between London and Islamabad in the aftermath of a botched terror probe involving Pakistani students.
The diplomatic tension between the two countries sparked by Prime Minister Brown’s statement disparaging Pakistan for not doing enough against terrorism is **said to have risen to a point where British Foreign Secretary David Miliband could not speak to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi over the past few days despite repeated requests for telephonic conversation. **
Moreover, visas were not given by Pakistan’s High Commission in London to a British team intending to visit Pakistan for negotiations on the deportation pact.
Diplomatic sources said that while Mr Brown during his last trip in December rudely accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism, this time he may be up to hard talk by the Pakistani leadership.
Observers are attaching immense importance to Mr Brown’s unscheduled dash to Islamabad and say it points to the gravity of the situation.
During his day-long stay here he would be meeting Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari. The sources said that although Prime Minister Brown would not be apologising for his shocking statements following the arrests, he would try to explain Britain’s position to his interlocutors.
He is likely to put pressure on Pakistan to sign the proposed pact on deportation.
Hopefully someone in the government will have the guts to take Gordon Brown to task for the utterly disgraceful way in which not only were these Pakistani students humiliated and shipped off, but even worse for how after arresting innocents he had the balls to accuse Pakistan of not doing enough to combat terrorism.
If arresting innocent people is Brown's anti-terrorism plans, then Britain is in no position to lecture Pakistan.
Suzy Jagger in Kabul and Nico Hines
Gordon Brown received an apparent snub today as he arrived in Pakistan for talks with President Zardari only to be told that he was not available to appear at a joint press conference afterwards.
The Prime Minister, who landed in Pakistan this afternoon after talks in Afghanistan, told reporters on the plane that he would hold a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari.
But instead of a joint press conference with Mr Zardari in Islamabad, it has emerged that Mr Brown will appear alongside the relatively junior Pakistani Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani.
Downing Street tried to play down reports that the President had cancelled the press conference at the last minute as a snub to Mr Brown.
“It is entirely appropriate that he has a press conference with his counterpart,” a No 10 spokesman said. However, on his last visit to Pakistan in December, Mr Brown and Mr Zardari did stage a joint press conference.
Mr Brown was visiting the region today to discuss Britain’s new strategy for dealing with the terror threat on the Pakistani-Afghan border, as international alarm spreads over Taleban advances. The Prime Minister spoke to British troops at Camp Bastion, their main base in Helmand province, this morning.
He also visited a military hospital, before moving to Kabul, the Afghan capital, for discussions with President Karzai.
“This area and the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is the crucible for global terrorism,” Mr Brown said, in a speech to the troops.
“It’s important to recognise that if we do not take action and we do not fight back against the Taleban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, then people in Britain and in other countries represented here are less safe.”
British troops in Helmand will be reinforced in coming weeks by the arrival of more than 8,000 US Marines, a massive influx that NATO commanders hope will reverse what they have described as a stalemate in one of the country’s most violent provinces.
Asked what Britain would do about instability on the Pakistani side of the border, Mr Brown said: “It’s clear … that we cannot sit by and allow this centre, or epicentre, of terrorism to continue to exist without taking further action.”
Attention in Western capitals is increasingly turning across the frontier to Pakistan, where Taleban influence has spread in recent weeks to valleys northwest of the capital.
The Pakistan Taleban has control of the Swat valley under a controversial peace accord signed last month. It has broken its promise to disarm, and has instead been seeking to extend its influence, sending militants south into Buner and west into the region of Dir, in breach of the accord.
The Pakistani army yesterday launched an offensive in Dir in an attempt to roll back the Taleban, after Washington made plain it was unhappy that the Taleban was being given too much leeway.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said yesterday that Washington was worried about the advancing Taleban seizing control of the Pakistani state, including “the keys to the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan”.
Mr Zardari insisted today that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were safe.
Officials travelling with Mr Brown said that Britain’s new strategy, which will be put to the House of Commons on Wednesday, will stress the need to take on al-Qaeda and Taleban militants on both sides of the border.
Like Mr Obama’s plan, the British strategy will stress the need to train tens of thousands more Afghan soldiers and police to take over responsibility for security from foreign troops.
Unlike Mr Obama, Mr Brown has so far promised few new troops. Britain has 8,300 soldiers in Afghanistan, the second largest contingent after the United States, and has pledged to send 700 more temporarily to boost security for an election in August.
“We are confident that we are shouldering our share of the burden,” Mr Brown said.
Mr Obama is sending at least 25,000 more US troops this year to join 40,000 Americans and 30,000 other Western soldiers.
The new British strategy will also call for some of Britain’s development aid budget for Pakistan to be diverted to the northern region adjoining Afghanistan. Britain has pledged £665 million to Pakistan and £510 million to Afghanistan in aid over the next four years.
About two thirds of terrorism plots uncovered in Britain are thought to have links to Pakistan.