Sunday, Oct 13, 2002
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By Amit Baruah.
Briefing presspersons after the talks at Mr. Blair's country residence, the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, said the British leader had "endorsed'' India's position that no dialogue was possible without an end to cross-border terrorism. In what amounted to direct comments on the internal affairs of Pakistan, Mr. Sinha stated that India was clearly of the view that democracy had not returned to Pakistan after the elections. It appeared that the Vajpayee Government was returning the compliment to the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, for his comments on the Gujarat killings. Mr. Sinha maintained that Mr. Blair had congratulated Mr. Vajpayee on the successful conduct of elections to the Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly. He quoted the Mr. Blair as saying that the polls were free and fair, but were not free of violence. In response to questions, Mr. Sinha said that India had seen the comments made by the European Union observer team in Pakistan about the elections there. "I would certainly say that the results of the Pakistani elections were pre-determined...,'' Mr. Sinha said, endorsing the opinion expressed by the EU observers. He accused the Musharraf regime of backing the fundamentalist parties that had done well in the polls. He said the Prime Minister had spoken of the emergence of the fundamentalist parties in the context of the developing situation in Afghanistan and the regrouping of fundamentalist forces. Both countries, it was agreed, needed to keep a close watch on the situation. On South Asia, Mr. Sinha quoted Mr. Blair as saying that dialogue and terrorism could not go on side by side. There was need to end cross-border terrorism in order to facilitate a dialogue. The situation in Iraq also came up for discussion. Asked if there were any differences of approach between New Delhi and London on Iraq, he said: "It did not come out that way.'' Mr. Blair gave his assessment of the prevailing situation in Iraq. For his part, Mr. Vajpayee said India favoured a "multilateral approach'' and all actions taken under the auspices of the United Nations. The Indo-British bilateral relationship came up during the talks, which lasted some 80-85 minutes. Mr. Blair expressed satisfaction at the progress in all spheres. Mr. Vajpayee told Mr. Blair that there was a need to push ahead with cooperation in the fields of trade and commerce. Also, British Ministers should visit India more often. The Prime Minister suggested that the two countries cooperate in the ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan. There was scope for Indian and British cooperation in joint projects in third countries.
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