The Hindu : Malaysia, India sign draft extradition treaty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 28, 2002

International

International

Malaysia, India sign draft extradition treaty

By P.S. Suryanarayana

KUALA LUMPUR SEPT. 27. The third meeting of the Malaysia-India Joint Commission ended here today, with both sides expressing willingness to carry forward their proactive interaction by sustaining the momentum attained since the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, visited Kuala Lumpur.

The Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, is now planning to visit India soon.

The two sides discussed the progress of Malaysia's infrastructure undertakings in India and the potential for Indian project-initiatives in Malaysia in the high-tech sectors of information as also biotechnology and genome-related exercises besides the status of New Delhi's assistance in the area of surface transportation.

Malaysia has so far completed highways-related projects in India at an estimated cumulative cost of $ 200 million while similar infrastructure undertakings worth $ 1.2 billion were on hand. Overall, no major new economic initiative or trade deal was announced by either side, although the traditional cooperation in the sphere was discussed.

The Malaysian Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, and his Indian counterpart, Yashwant Sinha, presided over today's session of the joint commission.

An area of urgent Indian concern relates to the problems being faced by the unskilled labour force as also the highly skilled professionals in the knowledge-based economic segment in Malaysia. At India's initiative, the two sides considered a draft memorandum of understanding on labour-related issues. It was agreed today that the discussions on the draft would be carried forward.

The two sides, which have initialled a draft extradition treaty, agreed to stay engaged so that the document could be suitably signed. Some legal issues from the Malaysian side remained to be cleared before the treaty could be adopted. There was no specific discussion on the issue of extradition relating to the Bofors case.

`Pak. polls a sham'

Mr. Sinha, in response to a media query, said that Indian authorities "do not have any high hopes" of being able to engage Pakistan in the context of its prospective parliamentary elections. The reason, he asserted, was that the promised "elections are a complete sham". The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, had only recently "perpetuated himself in power for another five years" and his "unilateral" Constitutional amendments had "effectively destroyed the democratic nature of (the promised) elections".

Mr. Sinha further stated: "Even after the elections, we do not expect (that) any independent and autonomous democratically-elected government would emerge in Pakistan".

As Gen. Musharraf "holds all the cards", it would be in the "realm of speculation" to determine "what kind of business" India might be able to do with any post-election government in Pakistan.

He was equally non-committal about India's likely stand on the American moves towards a military strike against Iraq saying that the Iraq-related situation was still evolving.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

Stories in this Section

Malaysia, India sign draft extradition treaty

U.S. for enhancing Pak.'s defence capability

Protests cast shadow over meet

Karzai to seek Arab aid for reconstruction

Democrats for toning down resolution

Tackle influenza, WHO urges nations

`Dhaka will not dilute stand on gas export issue'

Extremists protest against stage play

France to phase out Sangatte camp

Rights body condemns temple attack

Pak. among new non-permanent Council members

We'll not disrupt peace process: PA