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Vajpayee to attend CHOGM
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 31
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would be visiting Australia on February 28 for attending Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM) where the issue of terrorism is likely to top the agenda.

Well-placed sources said here today that the Prime Minister would be leaving for the summit meeting three hours after the presentation of the Union Budget for 2002-2003.

CHOGM is likely to take place from March 2 to 6. Mr Vajpayee would be in Australia till March 7.

This will be the first visit abroad by Mr Vajpayee since the December 13 terrorist attack on Parliament. Sources said the Prime Minister would be using this opportunity to the hilt for apprising the world leaders attending the meet about Pakistan’s continued involvement in orchestrating a proxy war against India.

Mr Vajpayee would also be briefing the world leaders during his bilateral discussions on the margins of CHOGM about the ongoing military stand-off between India and Pakistan.

Incidentally, Australia did not figure in the list of destinations chosen for Indian parliamentarians’ delegations which fanned across the world this month. Seven delegations visited 19 countries during this diplomatic offensive launched by India to personally contact law-makers and influential people in various countries to drive home the Indian perspective on Pakistan’s role in exporting terrorism. This was because the Prime Minister himself was scheduled to go to Australia.

Australia has been in the forefront of international coalition against terrorism in the wake of September 11 terror attacks in the USA. It also contributed troops in the ongoing “Operation Enduring Freedom” in Afghanistan.

The CHOGM summit is a god-sent opportunity for the Indian leadership to explain their stand vis a vis Islamabad. Pakistan is no longer a member of CHOGM as it was expelled from this international body after Gen Pervez Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup on October 12, 1999.

An ongoing preparatory conference for more than 50-member CHOGM in London has recently said “no” to Pakistan’s re-entry in the body. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, who is attending the London meet, is scheduled to come back here tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in another significant development, Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is arriving here tomorrow on an eight-hour-long working visit.

Thailand is an important country for India from the point of view of combating terrorism which is reflected by the fact that New Delhi already has an extradition treaty with Bangkok. Thailand is an important transit point for underworld gangsters and international arms dealers and drug peddlers despite the tough Thai laws.

Dr Shinawatra, who is scheduled to arrive here at 10.50 pm would call on President K.R. Naraynan at 6.15 pm. He meets the Prime Minister at 7.30 pm where a number of agreements are likely to be signed between the two countries. The meeting would be followed by a dinner hosted by the Prime Minister in the visiting dignitary’s honour.

Pak not invited to C’wealth meeting

London, January 31
Pakistan will remain suspended from Councils of the Commonwealth and its representative will not be invited to the group’s March meeting in Australia.

At the meeting presided over by Lt-Gen Mompati Merafhe, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Botswana, the group said the Heads of Government “express their concern over the continuation of non-democratic government in Pakistan. PTI