M A I N   N E W S

Settle bilateral issues: Sinha

Moscow, May 17
India has ruled out any summit talks with Pakistan until all bilateral issues are “settled” at official-level parleys and asserted that dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure by Islamabad is a must.

“There will not be a summit until all issues are settled at the official level,” External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said addressing the Moscow-based Indian community last night.

Observing that the level of infiltration across the Line of Control was not an indicator of terrorism, he said dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure by Pakistan was a must.

“Infiltration is like a tap which can be turned on or off. It is the pipeline through which terror flows into India. There is a need to destroy the reservoirs of terror and the pipes through which it flows,” Mr Sinha said. He said he had conveyed this to US Secretary of State Colin Powell during their meeting here on Tuesday.

Mr Sinha described Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s latest initiative for the normalisation of relations with Islamabad as “historic” and said Pakistan was the only country in the world with which India’s relations were not good.

After winding up his Moscow visit, Mr Sinha left last night for St Petersburg.

In Moscow, Mr Sinha had extensive exchange of views on bilateral trade and economic cooperation with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and leaders of the Russian business community.

Yesterday, he signed the protocol of Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission with Russian Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Ilya Klebanov. After spending two nights in St Petersburg, Mr Sinha flies to London tomorrow to attend the Commonwealth Ministerial meet. PTI