M A I N   N E W S

SAARC backs India on terrorism

Kathmandu, December 31
India achieved a major diplomatic victory when the Foreign Secretaries of SAARC countries, including Pakistan, today endorsed its proposal to refer the Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism to a group of legal experts to widen its scope and make it more effective to deal with the menace in all its forms.

Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer, who represented India at the 27th session of the Standing Committee of SAARC, was categorical that the convention had become “outdated” and needed to be modernised in view of terrorism assuming a serious dimension in the past few years, posing a threat to world peace.

Briefing newspersons, Mr R.O. Wallang, a senior official of the Indian External Affairs Ministry, said Pakistan also backed India’s proposal, which now would be examined by SAARC legal advisers at their meeting in Colombo early next year.

“There was no adverse reaction from Pakistani delegates... it was felt that four countries of the grouping — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — are victims of terrorism and there is a need for a much more comprehensive convention to tackle the menace in all its manifestations,” he said.

SAARC signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which envisages promotion and empowerment of women.

Meanwhile, India today ruled out the possibility of bilateral talks between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the SAARC summit commencing on January 4 and said New Delhi’s position on cross-border terrorism would be firmly conveyed to member states.

No meeting had been planned between External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Abdul Sattar ahead of the summit.

Congress President and Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi has no plan to attend the summit. PTI, UNI

UK urges Pak, India to show restraint

London, December 31
The British Government has made an appeal to India and Pakistan to deflate an escalating military stand-off that has seen both subcontinental nuclear states mass troops along their border.

“It is obviously in no one’s interests for tensions to mount as they are doing,” a government spokesman said in London yesterday.

The British Government spokesman said Prime Minister Tony Blair had spoken with US President George W. Bush for 15 minutes late Saturday to discuss the problem.

ABU DHABI: United Arab Emirates President Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan has called on Pakistan and India to “let reason prevail” amid the rumbling dispute between the two South Asian nuclear powers, a report said. AFP