Krishna-Khar meet in Tokyo
TOKYO, July 8: Stepping up pressure on Pakistan to take action in Mumbai terror attack case, India today said the normalisation of bilateral ties can “only be in an atmosphere free of terror”, stressing the need for creation of the “right” ambience.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who had a 30-minute meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar here, underlined the importance of taking action to bring perpetrators of 26/11 to justice, maintaining that New Delhi has given additional concrete evidence against those involved.
Krishna, who met Khar on the sidelines of a conference on Afghanistan, also raised the issue of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed’s “pouring venom” and continued anti-India propaganda, official sources said.
They said the two ministers had “candid and constructive discussion” in a cordial atmosphere during which they also shared their assessment of the outcome of their Foreign Secretary-level talks held in New Delhi two days ago.
During the Secretary-level talks, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai had shared with his counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani the information gathered from Jundal who revealed that he, along with Saeed, was in the control room in Pakistan during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Mathai also shared the information on Pakistani passport and Pakistan’s domestic identity cards issued to Jundal in the name of Riyasat Ali, indicating the involvement of Pakistan’s state agencies in the Mumbai attacks.
“Krishna reiterated the importance of taking action to bring perpetrators of Mumbai to justice and action against terrorists. He emphasised that nomalisation of relations can only be in an atmosphere free of terror. Hence the need for creation of the right atmosphere,” official sources said, adding “the activities of Hafiz Saeed pouring venom on India” were pointed out by the minister.
The External Affairs Minister also raised issues related to Sarabjit Singh, currently on a death row, and other Indian prisoners in Pakistan.
On her part, Khar assured India that new Pakistan Government was committed to former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s goal of bridging relations with India.
The two leaders also shared views on Krishna’s forthcoming visit to Pakistan in September.
Hinting at Pakistan-based terror safe havens, Krishna said Afghanistan still faced an “existential threat” from terrorism emanating from beyond its borders and asked the word community to provide substantial assistance to the war-torn country to deal with the menace.
“While we assist Afghanistan in attaining its long-cherished goal of self reliance, we must also acknowledge that despite our successes in Afghanistan, the basic ideological, infrastructural, logistical and financial infrastructure of terror is still intact in the region,” he said.
Addressing the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan, he said, “Afghanistan continues to be a country that faces an existential threat from terrorism emanating from beyond its borders – a threat that it is fighting every day, and that it is ill-equipped to repel in the absence of substantial assistance from the international community.”
The minister’s comments came as Afghanistan continued to face attacks from terror safe havens in neighbouring Pakistan.
The Tokyo meet is being attended by around 70 countries and international bodies. Its main aim is to ensure sustainable development of Afghanistan beyond 2012 and reaffirming partnership between the international community and the Afghan Government until 2014 and during the transformation decade (2015-2024).
“Clear and visible support to Afghanistan is crucial in order to preserve the gains made by the international community and Afghan men and women in the past decade,” Krishna said and asked the international community to avoid temptation to lay down “conditionalities” on such assistance.
India, Krishna said, believes that “good governance is crucial to the building of a strong and legitimate State. But good governance also requires a strong State that has full control over its territory. This is not yet the case in Afghanistan.”
He appreciated the Mutual Accountability Framework that has been drafted for the Conference as a noble effort.
At the same time, he said India believes that true mutuality can only be achieved at equal levels of capacity.
“The figures that have been put forward as development assistance to Afghanistan represent a base-line or minimum requirement for a least developed land-locked country that has experienced externally-imposed conflicts for three decades,” Krishna said.
“These amounts give a fighting chance for success if they can be optimised and managed in a frugal way without excessive administrative costs,” he added.
The Minister said India does not visualise its partnership with Afghanistan as conditions-based or transitory, nor are we looking to transition out of this partnership.
“In spite of not being a traditional donor country, we have shared significant resources for Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development.”
During his landmark visit to Afghanistan last year Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had pledged an additional USD 500 million to development portfolio there, bringing India’s total cumulative commitment to USD 2 billion.
A large portion of this assistance has either been disbursed or is committed to ongoing projects.
“We have also committed to begin a number of new projects over the course of the coming year,” Krishna said.
The USD 500 million assistance announced by Prime Minister of India in May 2011 will be spent from 2012 through 2015. The projects will be in line with the projects suggested under the National Priority Programmes of the Government of Afghanistan, he said.
As India continues to grow economically, it will continue to share our resources and experience with friends in the region, he said.
“India does not plan to limit its future development engagement in Afghanistan to a particular time frame or only to the presently planned projects. Our partnership is for the long-term.”
“The pace and nature of the utilisation of the present and future Indian assistance will be determined by the preference, comfort level and absorptive capacity of the Afghan Government,” he added.
“We will need active support of the international community to make a reality of the vision of a prosperous Afghanistan acting as a hub of the region; and with its resources and trading instincts, as a catalyst for wider regional cooperation.
“History shows that the proud Afghan people have always craved independence and self-reliance above everything else. India is ready to partner the international community and Afghanistan to achieve these goals within a globalized economic environment.” (PTI)
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