The Hindu : Pak. measures too small: Fernandes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 25, 2003

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Pak. measures too small: Fernandes

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM MAY 24. The recent confidence-building measures announced by the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, are too small and unless cross-border terrorism stops, these steps would not inspire India to enter into a dialogue with its neighbour, the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, said today.

``No one is in a hurry to hold a dialogue. It is not a child's play, where we say if you do this we will do that. We have to take concrete and measured steps for confidence-building. Dialogue at the highest level is the ultimate aim and we cannot rush into this,'' he told reporters at a press conference at the INS Dega here. He had spent the night in a submarine off the Visakhapatnam coast.

Commenting on the joint exercises with the Russian navy in the Arabian Sea, he said not much should be read into these annual exercises.

``Russia has been our oldest strategic partner, but after the disintegration of the erstwhile USSR, there was a gap for some years and now we have resumed them (exercises).''

``We had similar exercises with the United States and the France,'' he pointed out.

Narrating his 12-hour experience under water in INS Sindhuvir (a Sindhughosh class of sub), Mr. Fernandes said: ``I am reminded of the pains taken by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who spent months in a submarine during the fight for Independence''.

``Hazards are there everywhere, but working in a sub is different from other Defence-related jobs,'' he said.

Appreciating the sailors and officers of the Navy for working in such difficult conditions, he said he would do all that was possible to improve their working conditions.

The Defence Minister, along with the Eastern Naval Command Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Raman Puri, reviewed the operations of the frontline submarine of the ENC, including diving and surfacing, that commenced just before midnight.

``I was exhausted after my hectic schedule during the past two days. I was woken up in the morning to watch the second phase of the operations, which displayed the alertness and preparedness of the Naval personnel,'' he said.

Mr. Fernandes left for New Delhi later in the day.

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