Indian Prime Minister to talk tough on terror (US visit)

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is going to talk tough on the terror issue with the Bush administration during his US trip. He will point out to the US top brass that Pakistan is yet to dismantle militant infrastructure and this can hamper the peace talks between the two neibhours.

Having recently suffered a setback on its hopes for a UN Security Council seat, with the US closing the count of the number of seats, India has decided to mount pressure on the US by using the peace-with-Pakistan card.

The Prime Minister will also take the strategic partnership with the US on defence ties — which was worked on by defence minister Pranab Mukherjee during his recent trip to the US — ahead.

Though the Left component of the UPA government is opposed to this move, the Opposition BJP leadership fully supports the PM on this issue. Mukherjee will be meeting Leader of Opposition L K Advani soon to discuss the issue in detail.

In fact, the London blasts will come to India’s advantage in bringing the focus of the American establishment to the terror issue. It has made it easier for the Prime Minister to tell the US that there cannot be two different rules to deal with terrorism. The same rule that is applied in the rest of the world needs to be applied in the subcontinent too.

The defence minister was being updated by the DGMO as recently as on Wednesday about the Army combating a group of 35 militants who have infiltrated into snow-bound areas of Kupwara and Baramulla. Though the government has not highlighted the issue, it has been building up a case to put forward to the US during Singh’s visit to the US.

During NSA Narayanan’s recent visit to US, to prepare the ground for the PM’s visit, he provided the US administration with the details of the terror camps, including maps that showed their location.

Opposition BJP is in full support of the Prime Minister’s stand in this context. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and senior leaders Advani and Jaswant Singh backed his stand during their meeting with him on Wednesday.

I'm waiting for GWB to use this opportunity to start in motion a historically significant process resulting in real US/Indian strategic, military and economic relationships that will Dwarf the importance of Nixon's visit to China.

I'm not really sure that the current Indian government is really ready for that, however.

2 posted on 07/16/2005 7:45:17 AM PDT by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")

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