Cook arrives in better climes

By Thomas Abraham

LONDON, APRIL 14. The British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Robin Cook, arrives in India tomorrow on a five-day official visit. The atmosphere now is strikingly different from his last visit to New Delhi with Queen Elizabeth in 1997. That visit was marred by what New Delhi saw as Britain's eagerness to get involved in mediating between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. The resulting unpleasantness worsened by the near-freeze in Indo-British relations after the nuclear tests in the following year.

Mr. Cook's visit now is intended to cement the marked improvement in Indo-British relations that has occurred since then. The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, during his visit to Britain last December, described the state of Indo-British relations as ``excellent,'' a view that Mr. Cook concurred with. Britain's notably harder stand towards Pakistan after Kargil and the military coup has been a major factor in this change.

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Section  : International
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