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`Differences within E.U. on South Asia'
By Our Diplomatic Correspondent
As the Danish Presidency dictated a tough line on India talking to Pakistan and exercising restraint, Mr. Sinha told presspersons that it was the European Union that was making New Delhi's relations with Brussels hostage to ties with Pakistan.
Speaking after a tense ending to the Third India-European Union Summit, Mr. Sinha said he raised the public comments made by the EU Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten, about India viewing relations with the EU through a Pakistani prism.
(Talking to reporters informally, Mr. Patten said his comments were in the context of certain concessions that the European Union had made to Pakistan in the textile sector. The Indian side, however, said that those concessions had now been withdrawn).
Asked how New Delhi would deal with pressures from the international community, including the United States, on resuming talks with Pakistan, Mr. Sinha said India would say the same thing to the U.S. as had been conveyed to the European Union today.
Referring to the differences over the joint press statement, Mr. Sinha said this had been under negotiation for quite some time. A couple of days ago the European Union came out with the formulation on India resuming the dialogue with Pakistan, with which India had problems.
New Delhi then suggested that it would be amenable to including the resumption of the dialogue if the reference included an end by Pakistan to cross-border terrorism. This, he said, was not acceptable to the E.U. side and, hence, all references to Kashmir and Pakistan were dropped.
Mr. Sinha echoed the Prime Minister when he said that there was no question of resuming talks with Pakistan till there was an end to cross-border terrorism. He said the E.U. telling Pakistan to end cross-border terrorism did not have any impact on Islamabad.
The External Affairs Minister, who was part of the India-E.U. "troika'' meeting along with Mr. Patten, the E.U. High Representative, Javier Solana, and the Danish Foreign Minister, Per Stig Moller, said discussions were also held on the situation in Nepal and Sri Lanka.
On Iraq, when the E.U. side pointed out that there commonalities on the Indian position and that of the Union, Mr. Sinha said he pointed out that there were differences of approach on the question inside the E.U. itself. (Here, Mr. Sinha was possibly referring to the British position on Iraq).
Speaking late in the evening, sources said there had been a meeting between diplomats. They said there would be some effort to make amends from the E.U. side after what happened today. The E.U. side acknowledged the less than adequate handling of the situation.
While hoping that some steps would be taken to undo the lack of coherence on the Indian side, the sources said they had been "surprised'' by the public comments of the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Rasmussen, on Kashmir and Pakistan.
Contrary to the differences that marked the Third India-EU Summit meeting on Kashmir and dialogue with Pakistan, a joint press statement (which must have been agreed to in advance) said: "We express satisfaction with the positive results of the Summit and its contribution to consolidate our firm and comprehensive relationship.''
It reiterated the commitment to combat terrorism. "We emphasise that there can be no justification for terrorism and that those who perpetrate and sponsor it will be brought to justice.''
``We reaffirm our commitment to the universal implementation of all the UN anti-terrorism conventions and UN Security Council resolution 1373. We support early conclusion and adoption of the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism and the draft International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. We agreed to reflect on the need for consultations between EUROPOL and Indian agencies,'' it said.
``India welcomed the enlargement of the E.U., which is making good progress and the development of the Common Foreign and Security Policy.''
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