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Sayeeda Warsi repaired the Cameron-Zardari rift | Westminster Blog | FT.com
Sayeeda Warsi repaired the Cameron-Zardari rift
August 8, 2010 6:10pm
by Kiran Stacey
Sayeeda Warsi
The visit of Asif Ali Zardari to the UK was surrounded with tension. Not only was Zardari leaving behingd a country facing its worst floods in 80 years but he was travelling to meet a prime minister who only days beforehand had told an audience in India that elements within Pakistan were exporting terrorism.
So great excitment surrounded the meeting between the two leaders at Chequers earlier this week. Would Zardari put Cameron in his place, as he had promised? Would Cameron stand up for himself?
In the end, two beaming leaders emerged to greet the media and tell them what a great friendship they had struck up. Some of this of course was diplomatic posturing. But it was clear something had changed, and the air had been rapidly and dramatically cleared.
So who should take credit for this thaw in UK-Pakistani relations? Not Mr Cameron and his own personal charms, or Mr Zardari, it seems, but Sayeeda Warsi, the British daughter of Pakistani parents who is a cabinet minister without portfolio.
Zardari met Warsi last week before his meeting with Cameron. The Cabinet Office were tight-lipped today about what was discussed at that meeting, but Zardari suggested at a rally for British Pakistanis in Birmingham on Saturday that she was key in persuading Cameron that Pakistan was doing all it could to stop terrorism. In fact, she was the only cabinet minister he mentioned during that speech. He referred to Cameron only obliquely as the British leadership.
Warsi recently gave a slightly ill-tempered interview to The Guardian in which she attacked the idea that her race and religion were an important part of what she brought to the cabinet. But as the events of this week have shown, David Cameron might find that having a Muslim cabinet minister in his government could help smooth some of the UKs most fraught international relationships.
Sayeeda Warsi repaired the Cameron-Zardari rift
August 8, 2010 6:10pm
by Kiran Stacey
Sayeeda Warsi
The visit of Asif Ali Zardari to the UK was surrounded with tension. Not only was Zardari leaving behingd a country facing its worst floods in 80 years but he was travelling to meet a prime minister who only days beforehand had told an audience in India that elements within Pakistan were exporting terrorism.
So great excitment surrounded the meeting between the two leaders at Chequers earlier this week. Would Zardari put Cameron in his place, as he had promised? Would Cameron stand up for himself?
In the end, two beaming leaders emerged to greet the media and tell them what a great friendship they had struck up. Some of this of course was diplomatic posturing. But it was clear something had changed, and the air had been rapidly and dramatically cleared.
So who should take credit for this thaw in UK-Pakistani relations? Not Mr Cameron and his own personal charms, or Mr Zardari, it seems, but Sayeeda Warsi, the British daughter of Pakistani parents who is a cabinet minister without portfolio.
Zardari met Warsi last week before his meeting with Cameron. The Cabinet Office were tight-lipped today about what was discussed at that meeting, but Zardari suggested at a rally for British Pakistanis in Birmingham on Saturday that she was key in persuading Cameron that Pakistan was doing all it could to stop terrorism. In fact, she was the only cabinet minister he mentioned during that speech. He referred to Cameron only obliquely as the British leadership.
Warsi recently gave a slightly ill-tempered interview to The Guardian in which she attacked the idea that her race and religion were an important part of what she brought to the cabinet. But as the events of this week have shown, David Cameron might find that having a Muslim cabinet minister in his government could help smooth some of the UKs most fraught international relationships.
