NEW DELHI, 10 June 2003 — US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani have met in Washington to discuss the possible deployment of Indian troops to war-ravaged Iraq, media reports said yesterday.
The issue was discussed during a visit by Rumsfeld to Advani at his Washington hotel room on Sunday, the reports said.
Officials had sought to set up a meeting between the two on Monday or Tuesday but their busy schedules made that impossible.
Among the main points of discussion was a US request for India to send a division-strength contingent to replace its own occupation troops, part of an international stabilization force in Iraq.
The Indian government has not officially expressed itself on the issue but the military and the political opposition — as well as some allies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — vehemently oppose the deployment because Indian troops will fall under British or US command.
New Delhi has consistently argued that all proceedings and operations in Iraq be under the auspices of the United Nations and not a US-led coalition.
The two also discussed the ongoing international fight against terrorism and defense cooperation, newspaper reports said here yesterday.
Advani raised the issue of the influx of rebels from Pakistan-administered Kashmir into the Indian sector of bitterly divided Kashmir, where an anti-Indian rebellion since 1989 has killed some 38,000 people, according to Indian figures. Separatists and Pakistan put the death toll twice as high.
According to the Indian Express newspaper, Advani stressed to Rumsfeld the need for Pakistan to end what New Delhi terms “cross-border terrorism” — the main cause of the dangerous rivalry between the South Asian rivals which almost sparked a fourth war last year.
Pakistan insists it only provides moral and diplomatic support to militants it regards as freedom fighters engaged in a struggle for self-determination.
Advani told Rumsfeld, the paper said, that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had not kept his word to dismantle militants’ training camps in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
It said Advani, on a 10-day tour of the United States and Britain, was keen to convey to Washington its concerns over ongoing militancy in Kashmir ahead of a visit to the United States by Musharraf later this month.
The report also quoted Advani as telling reporters on the plane to Washington that he was eager to eliminate the Pakistan factor from the Indo-US relationship.
Advani was invited to the United States by Vice President Dick Cheney. He is also to meet with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and US Attorney General John Ashcroft during his visit to Washington.
In London later in the week, Advani will meet Prime Minister Tony Blair, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Home Secretary David Blunkett and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Meanwhile, India’s foreign ministry has cleared a visit by a delegation of Pakistani businessmen aimed at reviving stagnant trade.
The 40-member delegation will be led by Ilyas Ahmed Billour, president of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Riaz Ahmed Tata, president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
They will meet their Indian counterparts in New Delhi on June 28 and 29, a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) statement said.
The discussions will center around the low volume of trade as well as infrastructural and policy bottlenecks hampering movement of goods, capital and people between the two countries.
Indian businessmen are likely to demand that Pakistan grant most favored nation status to India, which would allow them to export almost all items at low rates of import duties.
Currently Pakistan allows imports of only 610 items from India and these are subject to high tariffs, which encourages smuggling.
India has granted most favored nation status to Pakistan which means imports are treated the same as goods from any other country.
