rediff.com: India's stand on terrorism gets international support

The United States, Australia and Canada Thursday supported India's stand on international terrorism and its links with drug trafficking and the arms trade, even as New Delhi voiced concern over recent attempts at "fresh map making" in the region.

Intervening at the day-long meeting of the 23-member Association of South East Asian Nations regional forum in Bangkok, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh called for concerted efforts from the key countries to jointly fight the global menace of terrorism, drug trafficking and the illegal arms trade.

Emerging from the closed-door session, Singh told reporters that the forum should play a collective role to discourage moves at fresh map making in the region. He cited an example of the five principles of peaceful co-existence -- Panchsheel -- had guided Sino-Indian relations.

Briefing the Indian media on the outcome of the forum meeting, a senior extermal affairs ministry official said Singh urged the members to provide an adequate balance between production, supply and demand of narcotic drugs, which was directly connected with international terrorism and the small arms trade.

The spokesman said foreign ministers of Australia and Canada backed India's position on links international terrorism had, while US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott asked the forum to do "everything possible" to disrupt terrorist networks.

Talbott said the forum members should stand together in taking concrete action to prevent, deter, prosecute and punish terrorist acts.

Singh, heading a high-level Indian team, sought the support of the 10 ASEAN members and its dialogue partners, including the US, on India's proposal at the United Nations for a comprehensive convention to counter terrorism.

The convention is on the agenda of the UN millennium summit in September. The Indian delegation to the summit will be led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Singh said, "We are very satisfied and the forum meeting, which is security related, has been entirely successful."

Significantly, there was no reference to the 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, an issue that had figured prominently during the last two forum meetings.

Singh will participate in ASEAN post-ministerial conference Friday and is to hold bilateral talks with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and foreign ministers of some key countries.

The forum discussions covered security implications of globalisation, regional political and security environment, its future actions, the situation in Fiji, the Korean peninsula and a hosts of other issues, forum chairman and Thailand's foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan said.

On developments in Fiji, Singh was joined by foreign ministers of Australia, New Zealand and South Korea besides the European Union in condemning the ouster of the elected government of Mahendra Chaudhry by rebel leader George Speight, who was described as a "criminal element".


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