E.U. to provide aid to quake victims

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 27. The European Union (E.U.) will provide emergency assistance as requested for the Gujarat earthquake, once the initial assessment was over.

This was conveyed by the visiting European Commissioner for External Relations, Mr. Chris Patten, to the Indian authorities. He said the E.U. was ``with the people of India during this hour of tragedy and is ready to help in every possible way''. He presented the E.U. President, Mr. Romano Prodi's condolence message to the President, Mr. K.R. Narayanan. He also expressed his sympathies during a meeting with the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh.

He said the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) was closely monitoring the crisis. South Asia ECHO experts had been alerted and they were assessing the situation and the need for urgent support. Contact was being maintained with humanitarian organisations in the region to assess the damage and draw up plans for possible emergency relief.

Kashmir issue

Earlier, the E.U. Commissioner, who is on a five-day official visit, told presspersons that the grouping would support all efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute. An early resolution was urgently required, he said, since the conflict was not only painful to those involved but also had ``bad economic effects'' on the region.

Mr. Patten said the E.U. had made it clear to Pakistan that ``business as usual'' was not possible. The military Government was urged to restore a democratic Government as soon as possible. The E.U. also offered to provide election observers to ensure the credibility of the process.

The E.U. Commissioner, who was briefing mediapersons at the Foreign Correspondents Club, said the grouping was keen to strengthen and deepen political and economic ties with India. His five-day official visit is a forerunner to the India-EU summit to be held here later this year.

Mr. Patten took the opportunity to clarify that the E.U. was not likely to seek inclusion of controversial issues such as linkage of labour or environmental standards to trade in the proposed new comprehensive round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The issues needed to be examined, but by the concerned multilateral institutions rather than the WTO.

He said that India's ``justifiable anxieties'' on the issues would be set at rest over the next few months. Countries such as India would do better with further progress in launching the new round provided it met the needs of the developing countries. Arguing in favour of the new round, he said it would be a ``tragedy'' if it was not initiated since rich countries would opt for bilateral agreements leaving out developing countries. However, he conceded that legitimate concerns of the developing countries should be met before the new round was launched.

The Indo-E.U. Joint Commission meeting, to be held in February, is expected to identify obstacles on the path of trade and investment. It would involve both industry and banks to resolve the problems deterring investment flows and higher trade.

He noted that India's exports to the E.U. were not rising as fast as those from China or even the small territory of Hong Kong. In view of its huge size and potential, he felt there was ``fantastic potential'' for India's exports to the European market to rise.

``Substantial progress'' had been made on cooperation in information technology, science and technology, agriculture, environment and terrorism in the follow-up to the Lisbon summit. While the dialogue on IT had just begun, the working groups on agriculture would take up the impact of genetically-modified organisms.

On terrorism, he said the E.U. was extending ``unstinting'' political support to India's moves towards developing a convention on anti-terrorism at the U.N. The E.U. was also concerned about funding of terrorism and activities through money laundering.

Mr. Patten said his talks would also cover India's insights into the Talibanisation of Afghanistan and the impact of the drug trade on central Asian countries.

On his talks with the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. Brajesh Mishra, he said security issues, the CTBT, regionalism and the new U.S. administration were discussed.

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