International

India invokes treaty with Russia as war clouds gather

Moscow May 19. As war clouds gather over the sub-continent, there are clear indications of India invoking provisions of the 1993 Friendship Treaty and Strategic Partnership Declaration of 2000 with Russia, calling for urgent security consultations between the two countries.

Diplomatic and Russian official sources here confirmed that shortly after the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security in New Delhi on Saturday, the Indian Ambassador, K. Raghunath, called on the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Losyukov, for consultations.

It is believed that Mr. Raghunath passed on convincing proof of Pakistan's direct involvement in the last Tuesday's Jammu attack and shared other sensitive information with Russia.

The Indo-Russian bilateral pacts signed during the President, Boris Yeltsin's India visit in January 1993 and the President, Vladimir Putin's New Delhi visit in October 2000, provide for urgent consultations between both the countries in case of a threat to the security of one of the contracting parties and close co-operation in jointly removing this threat.

Though no official confirmation of resorting to these bilateral security mechanisms has been made, the Kremlin officials told PTI that a security dialogue between Moscow and New Delhi at various levels on core issues of their national security and combating international terrorism was an ongoing process.

PTI

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