Russian Dy. PM coming on Oct. 14

By Atul Aneja

NEW DELHI, OCT. 11. The U.S. attacks in Afghanistan has triggered intensive diplomatic discussions between India, Iran, Russia and the U.S.

The Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Ilya Klebanov, will be here from October 14. Besides discussions on the current crisis, Mr. Klebanov's visit will focus on the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Moscow next month.

Both the sides will meet again to discuss the Afghan situation during the Indo-Russian Working group meeting on October 18. The Russian delegation will be led by its Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Vyacheslov Trubnikov. This working group was formed after the visit to India last October by the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin. India, Iran, Russia along with Tajikistan subsequently initiated joint meetings in support of the Northern Alliance which is battling the Taliban.

The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Mohsen Aminzadeh, will visit India on October 15 to discuss bilateral and regional issues in the backdrop of the terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Anti-U.S. feelings in Pak. worries Russia

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, OCT. 11. Russia's first Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Vyacheslav Trubnikov, will co-chair the Indo-Russia Working Group meeting together with the Indian Foreign Secretary, Ms. Chokila Iyer, the RIA Novosti news agency said.

The agency quoted Russia's Ambassador to India, Mr. Alexander Kadakin, as saying that the group would pay close attention to the situation in South Asia in the context of what was happening in Afghanistan.

Since the beginning of the U.S. strikes, Russian politicians and analysts have been warning that South and Central Asia are sitting on a powder keg whose name is Pakistan. Moscow is worried that the surge of anti-American feelings in Pakistan may topple the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and bring pro- Taliban military extremists to power, leading to serious deterioration of the regional set-up which is bound to affect the interests of Moscow and New Delhi.

``For the moment Gen. Musharraf has emerged as a compromise and predictable leader, who has made specific commitments to the international community and banned extremist groups,'' says Dr. Alexander Vaskin, coordinator of the Russian-Indian Security Forum, a new think-tank, set up by political and military experts in the two countries.

``The only alternative to him would be an extremist fundamentalist regime, uncontrollable and unpredictable. As Russia and India streamline their joint approach to current developments in Afghanistan, they should keep an eye on internal scenario in Pakistan.''

Russia fears that bombing of Afghanistan could raise the political temperature in Pakistan to boiling point. The Russian Parliament on Thursday warned of ``serious destabilisation across the entire Central Asian region'' unless the military operation in Afghanistan is confined to terrorist bases.

A nightmarish scenario for Moscow is to see Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of pro-Taliban extremists. ``Pakistan may be a long distance from Russia, but nuclear arms are never too far,'' Dr. Vaskin said.

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