St. Petersburg, July 17
Although the G8 summit of industrialised countries was predictably preoccupied with the escalating violence in the Middle East, India was able to persuade the world's most powerful leaders to look beyond the region and denounce the recent terrorist incidents in Mumbai.
The G8 nations as well as the leaders of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa today put out a joint statement to express their outrage at the Mumbai blasts but it stopped short of naming Pakistan in this connection. The reference to Islamabad's involvement was, however, implicit in their formulation. The statement was backed by the chairman of the council of the heads of state of the CIS, chairman of the African Union and the heads of international organisations.
‘‘We are outraged by the barbaric terrorist acts, carried out on 11 July, 2006, in Mumbai and other parts of India,’’ the statement said, adding that the international community is united with India in its resolve to intensify efforts to fight terrorism.
The signatory leaders and organisations also said they were ‘‘determined to continue the fight against terrorism by all legitimate means.’’
There was no direct reference to Pakistan's role in these incidents but the signatory countries did express their readiness to ‘‘undertake all necessary measures to bring to justice perpetrators, organisers, sponsors of these and other terrorist acts and those who incited the perpetrators to commit them.’’
Although Indian diplomats would have liked the international leaders to be more explicit about Pakistan's role in cross-border terrorism, they maintained that this reference constituted a recognition of Islamabad's support to terror networks operating on its territory.
India, which has been pushing for a collective denunciation of the Mumbai blasts from the international community, was, however, satisfied the world leaders had not overlooked the Mumbai incidents given that the G8 summit was completely overtaken by the crisis in the Middle East.
Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran described the statement as an important diplomatic gain for India and ‘‘a very strong message that there is zero tolerance for terrorism.’’
Besides getting the collective support of the G8 and the outreach countries on the issue of terrorism, India was also encouraged by the positive response from US President George Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Japanese Prime
Minister at their respective bilateral meetings with the PM. Mr Bush strongly condemned the recent blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar and assured New Delhi full support in dealing with terrorism. He also told Dr Singh that the US had readily agreed that a strong India-specific statement should emanate from the G8 meeting on the issue of terrorism
Even before the Indian delegation arrived here for the G8 outreach session, it was made abundantly clear that New Delhi would use this opportunity to push for a global and collective response to the terrorist incidents in Mumbai and Srinagar.
Speaking to presspersons en route to St. Petersburg, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that he will be using this opportunity to sensitise world leaders that terrorism is a major concern for India. Although officially, India maintained it was not indulging in a blame game, it was pointed out that Pakistan's continuing support to terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba which operate from its territory, would definitely find mention in their bilateral meetings with world leaders.
