The Hindu : Troops issue: 'New Delhi watching developments'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 18, 2003

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Troops issue: 'New Delhi watching developments'

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI July 17. India today said it did not have any specific comment to offer on news reports quoting the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, that the U.N. Security Council might issue an appeal to nations to send their troops to Iraq.

Pointing out that India was not a member of the Security Council, the Foreign Office spokesman said these were evolving developments which New Delhi was watching.

Statements, he said, were being made by various people. The spokesman said the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security on Monday that India could consider deploying troops in Iraq under an explicit U.N. mandate "speaks for itself". Several statements made by the U.S. had made it clear they understood the difficulties involved in India sending its troops to Iraq. The U.S. and India, he added, had a multi-faceted relationship that was not dependent on one issue.

On the possibility of the resumption of air links between India and Pakistan, the spokesman confirmed that Pakistan had agreed to host technical discussions between civil aviation authorities. However, Islamabad had not proposed any specific dates for the discussions.

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