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Sunday,
November 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
PM, Bush to discuss defence ties
Putin, Rumsfeld discuss Kabul Taliban ‘hang’ 3 royalists |
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Iran-Pakistan ties
strain
Russia may offer arms to
India Lanka newspaper office
attacked |
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Israel ‘made’ N-weapon with French
know-how SAARC summit to be held in January Indian cyclist on world tour
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PM, Bush to discuss defence ties Washington, November 3 Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh indicated this at a Press briefing on Friday night. Washington suspended military relations with New Delhi after India’s 1998 nuclear tests. Elaborating on the Prime Minister’s “working official” US visit, Mr Mansingh even indicated India’s desire to buy American military hardware as the USA had already removed the hurdle by scrapping economic sanctions. In fact, a decision in principle had already been taken to restore US-India defence ties during the two visits here of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh earlier this year. The Secretary-level US-India Defence Policy Group will meet before the end of this year to give concrete shape to the decision, Mr Mansingh said. “We look forward to a strong, robust military relationship which will be one of the features of the new bilateral relationship,” he added. Asked about the kind of military relationship India envisaged with the USA, he said, “We have been discussing (with the US) a lot of things in the past. We had service-to-service contacts, we had joint military and naval operations, and, above all, we have been discussing joint peacekeeping efforts.” “We had in the past joint military projects, like the light combat aircraft (LCA),” the Indian envoy said, adding, “We will be happy to discover new areas of (defence) cooperation.” He recalled how the two countries had put in place a structure for military relationship in 1995. The decision had also been taken to revive this structure, he added. Though there is no structured agenda for the Bush-Vajpayee White House luncheon meeting, indications are the Prime Minister will bring to the attention of his American interlocutors escalated border violations by Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of aiding and abetting terrorism in its Jammu and Kashmir state where 30,000 persons have been killed in 12 years of insurgency. Mr Vajpayee is expected to talk about intensified violent activities in Kashmir by Pakistan-trained terrorists, some of whom had been trained in terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida camps located on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Vajpayee would like the USA to make a commitment that the global anti-terrorist campaign would attend to the problem in Kashmir after it has done with the Taliban and the Al-Qaida. The Prime Minister will also try to promote New Delhi’s interests in a post-Taliban Afghanistan and ensure that Pakistan, the US ally in the war against Afghanistan, is not allowed to dictate the makeup of a new government in Kabul. “We remain concerned about the future of Afghanistan because, we think that in the post-Taliban scenario, we need to see a regime in Afghanistan that is representative of all the elements in the country. We must make sure that the new government that takes shape there does not export terrorism and we expect that that government will be friendly to all its neighbours,” he said. He said India considered itself a neighbour of Afghanistan and “we expect that in the discussions that take place, we will have a fair share in determining the future course of action in Afghanistan. We also want to have a share in the economic reconstruction of Afghanistan.” Mr Vajpayee will arrive here from Moscow late in the evening on November 7 and will meet the US Congressional leadership the next day. The Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, a group of about 124 lawmakers friendly to India, will hold a lunch in his honour. Immediately, after his meeting with Bush, Mr Vajpayee will leave for New York to attend the UN General Assembly session. He is scheduled to address the session on November 10.
IANS |
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Putin, Rumsfeld discuss Kabul Moscow, November 3 The agenda of the talks reportedly included discussions on a wide range of issues concerning international security in the context of the current US anti-terrorist campaign in Afghanistan, according to Ria Novosti news agency. The ministers would also consider issues of strategic stability relating to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) and START Treaties, it added. Relations between Russia and the USA, including those in the sphere of security, and bilateral contacts on various levels “have considerably expanded’’, Mr Ivanov said.
UNI |
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Taliban ‘hang’ 3 royalists Islamabad, November 3 The three were hanged yesterday in Deharwad district of Uruzgan province where Mr Karzai was surprised by Taliban militia, the Pakistan-based AIP said quoting unnamed sources. The report said the whereabouts of Mr Karzai and the rest of his followers was unknown. There was no immediate official confirmation from the Taliban or other sources on the fate of Mr Karzai’s detained followers. Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said yesterday that those captured would not be executed straight away as “no decision has been taken yet.” Taliban fighters were said to be hunting Mr Karzai and his remaining followers in rugged hills in the southern province. Mr Karzai followed another former resistance fighter in attempting a secret mission into Afghanistan to counter the Taliban.
AFP |
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Iran-Pakistan ties strain Teheran, November 3 A delegation from the Pakistani intelligence service visited Teheran last week and conveyed an invitation to President Mohammad Khatami and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi to visit Islamabad but the invitation was turned down, the daily said. Also an Iranian Commerce Ministry delegation cancelled a trip to Islamabad scheduled for next week during which customary agreements were supposed to be inked. At Friday’s prayer ceremony in Teheran, the prayer leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, criticised the readiness of Pakistan to cooperate with the USA in the Afghanistan campaign and wondered how Islamabad could join the coalition “in killing innocent Afghan people”. Iran and Pakistan, both hosts to millions of Afghan refugees, enjoyed very close ties until 1995 when Islamabad suddenly turned to the Taliban and supported the group in toppling the pro-Iranian Afghan government which later turned into the Northern Alliance.
DPA |
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Russia may offer arms to India Moscow, November 3 “We have accumulated a rich arsenal of anti-terrorism weapons, including electronic warfare, mini-submarines, and are ready to share it with our Indian partners,” Director-General of the state corporation, ‘Rosoboronexport’ Andrei Belyaninov said at the foreign correspondents meeting here. Belyaninov, however, declined to give any details on when the much-awaited deal on Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier and other defence contracts could be signed. “All stories are in the media, and I am glad that most of them are wrong,” he said in a lighter vein, reminding that in the course of state visit no arms deals are signed. “India is our strategic partner, with which we have very fruitful cooperation in the field of air, land and naval weapons, and we deal in the atmosphere of confidentiality,” he noted. To a question on the possible impact of the lifting of US sanctions on New Delhi on the Russian arms exports to India, Belyaninov dismissed any competition. On India inviting third parties for the modernisation of Soviet-built arms, like inviting Israelis for the upgradation of ‘Mi-17’ helicopter gunships, he said, “India has this right. This is a harsh reality, bitter and unpleasant for us, but it is the result of our legal illiteracy in the past that we did not reserve our exclusive rights while giving production license”.
PTI |
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Lanka newspaper office attacked Colombo, November 3 A security guard spotted the live grenade just outside the editorial room of Sinhala daily “Divaina”, and the bomb squad was called in to defuse it, they said. No one was injured. The group, which also publishes “The Island” daily, had been allegedly threatened earlier by a former Deputy Minister, belonging to the ruling People’s Alliance who stormed into its office recently with his supporters. He was arrested on charges of tresspass but later released on bail. However, journalists said they were not certain if the grenade attack had anything to do with the politician. Meanwhile, election-related violence escalated as complaints of clashes and intimidation of party activists by rivals poured into the police election secretariat. More than 200 complaints of attacks, threats and intimidation have been registered. A former Presidential Security Division constable was shot dead last night. The media linked it to election-related violence, as he was allegedly involved in political crimes in the past. This is third murder in the run-up to the polls. A Deputy Minister, Reggie Ranatunga, father of former cricketing icon Arjuna Ranatunga, is in custody in connection with one of the murders. The opposition United National Party (UNP) has alleged that the police was covering up several politically motivated killings. Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has alleged that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has planned to hand over a separate state to the Tamil Tigers in the event of his party returning to power. Making the allegation at the inaugural polls rally of the People’s Alliance (PA) at Anuradhapura yesterday, Ms Kumaratunga asked the UNP leader to reveal details of the alleged pact with the LTTE. “Wickremesinghe has no moral right to continue his election campaign unless he furnishes the facts,’’ she said. Mr Wickremesinghe denied that there was a secret pact, agreement or memorandum of understanding with the LTTE. “The PA is trying to divert the attention of the masses from the burning problems,’’ he said.
PTI, UNI |
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Israel ‘made’ N-weapon with French know-how Jerusalem, November 3 While no Israeli official will confirm or deny such reports, the firm — passed by Israel’s military censor — shows a former French Defence Ministry official saying that the head of the French Atomic Energy Commission, Francis Perrin, advised then-Prime Minister Guy Mollet to give Israel a nuclear bomb. “Francis Perrin called Guy Mollet,” says the official, Abel Thomas, “He told him that Israel should be supplied with a nuclear bomb.” Thomas, who served as chief of then-Defence Minister Maurice Bourges-Mounory’s political staff, said the offer came after Moscow threatened nuclear strikes against France, Israel and Britain for having sent troops into the Sinai peninsula. The deployment came after Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, which had been owned by British and French businesses. The film, to be aired in Israel on Sunday, says France supplied a nuclear reactor and scientists and technicians to set it up in Israel. It says the French agreed to supply enriched uranium and cites foreign reports as saying that it also supplied a plant for producing plutonium. Also quoting foreign sources, the film says France at the time also sold Israel Mirage jets, especially adapted to carry a nuclear payload. At the time, France was appreciative of Israel’s defence of the French Suez business and also sympathetic to the threats facing the Jewish state, following France’s own occupation in Second World War, the film says. A French Defence Ministry spokesman in Paris said today he knew nothing about the allegations and that there would be no comment until ministry officials has seen the documentary. The film, “A Bomb in Basement — Israel’s Nuclear Option,” marks the first time Israel’s nuclear armory has been covered in depth by the Israeli media, which is subject to military censorship, said creator Michael Karpin. Israel describes its policy as one of “nuclear ambiguity, where it will neither confirm nor deny its nuclear capability, but pledges not to be the first in the region to use nuclear weapons. It says its nuclear plant, at Dimona in the Negev Desert, is for peaceful research and industry. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who as Deputy Defence Minister at the time, says in the film that he asked “for a nuclear reactor and other things,” in his negotiations with the French, but does not specifically confirm or deny Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons.
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SAARC summit to be held in January Kathamandu, November 3 Nepal has proposed that the summit be held from January 4 to 6 in Kathmandu as the exact dates will be announced within the next week after consultations with the member countries,’’ the official said. The summit of the 11 South Asian countries was scheduled to be held here in 1999 but was postponed for about three years due to the military coup in Pakistan. The Agra summit between Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan’s Gen Pervez Musharraf, had cleared the way for holding the SAARC summit. In the declaration passed during the 10th summit of the SAARC held in Colombo in 1998, the South Asian leaders had expressed their commitment to fight against terrorism in the region.
UNI |
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Indian cyclist on world tour Kathmandu, November 3 He embarked upon his journey from his home state Tamil Nadu on January 28, 1998 and arrived in Nepalgunj, western Nepal, yesterday. Jogi Turubalam Swaminath Venkataramani speaks seven languages, including English, Sanskrit, Hindi and Tamil and plans to visit the Himalayan kingdom’s pilgrim centres, says Nepal’s National News Agency. But Jogi has traversed just about 8,000 km till now, averaging less than 10 km a day. Slow cyclist, Huh!.
UNI |
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