The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, June 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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Advani: US visit not Pak-centric
Talks with top officials today
P.P.S. Gill
Tribune News Service

WASHINGTON: In a rare gesture, the US Secretary of Defence, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, met Mr Advani, at the latter’s Willard Hotel suite on Sunday afternoon. Terrorism and defence were among the other issues discussed at the meeting that lasted 40 minutes.

New York, June 8
The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, arrived here today on the first-leg of his two-nation visit. India’s Ambassador to the USA, Mr Lalit Mansingh, Ambassador-at-Large Bhishma Agnihotri, Consul-General of India Pramathesh Rath and other officials, received him at the Newark International Airport.

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani with Mr Lalit Mansingh (extreme left) , India’s Ambassador to Washington, on his arrival in New York on Saturday. — PTI photo

Mr Advani has a heavy schedule ahead. Unlike his January, 2002, visit to the US, when internal security and terrorism were on the top of his agenda, this time the purpose and scope of the visit is larger. After completing his engagements in the US, which includes brief visits to Log Angeles and Chicago, he returns here to go to London on June 15.

Speaking to TNS, on the Air-India flight, Mr Advani said the previous visit had taken place in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and on Pentagon in Washington on September 11, 2001, and on Indian Parliament on December 13. “This time, the visit is not intended to be Pakistan-centric. It will cover the broad spectrum of Indo-US relations, including economics and trade, bilateral and of course Pakistan’s continuing role in exporting terrorism from its soil across the border with India into Kashmir”, he said.

Mr Advani, who is accompanied by high officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Intelligence Bureau, said he was “disappointed” with the US and was convinced that India would have to fight terrorism “on its own”. The Deputy Prime Minister revealed that when he was meeting his counterpart at the White House in January, 2002, US President George Bush had also walked in and told him: “I am as angry as you are. Please wait for the statement of Gen. Pervez Musharraf to be made on January 12”.

“Even more than one year after that speech, there has been not much change on the ground. This is despite Musharraf making a path-breaking reference to religious fundamentalism and terrorism, which are inter-related. The presence of suicide squads is a proof of this. He had promised that terrorism would not be exported from Pakistan’s soil. But it is still being aided and abetted by Pakistan. Even the list of 20 top terrorists wanted by India that was given to both Pakistan and the US has remained unanswered. In fact, the UK is more helpful in several respects than the US, say in banning Jaish-e-Mohammad”.

Therefore, Mr Advani is viewing the present 12-day visit much beyond Pakistan.

He left for Washington this morning (US time), where after a visit to Durga Mandir at Fairfax Station, he will have an in-house session with the US Ambassador and attend a reception for Indian-American community hosted by the Ambassador later in the evening. His round of official talks begins there on January 9. He is scheduled to meet US Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary, Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary Homeland Security Tom Ridge, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Attorney-General John Ashcroft and others.

Earlier, while on his way to New York from Mumbai, during the transit stopover in Paris, the Indian Ambassador to France, Ms Savitri Kunadi, received him at the international airport lounge.