NEW DELHI, 17 September 2003 — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee left yesterday on a three-nation tour that will include the first UN General Assembly session since the Iraq war.

“This session is most important. To what extent the world community could maintain global peace and carry everybody along with it will be discussed,” said Vajpayee, who is set to address the assembly session on Sept. 25.

“The role and structure of the UN has been called into question by some recent development. (And the) presence at the UN General Assembly provides opportunity for exchange of views on these matters with a number of world leaders from different regions,” Vajpayee said in a statement.

India was critical of the US-led war in Iraq which did not have UN authorization. New Delhi has so far rejected US calls to send peacekeeping troops to the war-torn country.

Asked whether India was reconsidering sending troops to Iraq, Vajpayee said without elaborating: “The UN is going to meet. If they take a decision, we will also take a decision.”

Vajpayee arrived in Turkey yesterday on the first stop on his 13-day trip. He will hold talks with US President George W. Bush on the sidelines of the UN meeting in New York and also visit Switzerland.

India has reiterated its demand for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, seizing on calls by Secretary General Kofi Annan for an overhaul of the world body.

On ties with Turkey, Vajpayee said: “Bilateral exchanges have intensified and our trade has increased significantly.”

The premier said India shared “common values of secularism and democracy with this important country which straddles the continents of Europe and Asia.

“Both political and economic factors encourage an expansion of our cooperation,” he said.

Vajpayee will visit both Istanbul and Ankara and hold talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

India to Test Pakistan’s Desire for Normal Relations at UN

Pakistan would be on test in the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly session to show it really wants to normalize relations with India, according to the Indian foreign minister, Yashwant Sinha.

“If the Pakistan leadership were to indulge in India-bashing, in a tirade against India, then it will show that they have very little concern for the new initiative and the new atmosphere which has been created as a result of that initiative,” he told Islamabad’s daily The News in an interview published yesterday.

Sinha was referring to the public outpouring for peace in the two countries since Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee extended “a hand of friendship” to Pakistan which raises the Kashmir dispute between them at all international forums.

“Despite all the efforts that Pakistan might have made to internationalize whatever issue, including that of Jammu and Kashmir, nobody is interested,” the Indian foreign minister said.

India will “continue to follow a careful, calibrated, step-by-step approach” to normalization of relations with Pakistan, he said

“All that we have to do is to revive that methodology which interrupted in 1999 ... The problem is not the methodology; the problem is the mindset (of Pakistan).”

In 1999 the two countries fought in Kashmir over the issue of infiltration of militants into the insurgency-ridden Indian part of the divided Himalayan territory. Pakistan beat a retreat under international pressure, which eventually led to a coup the same year.

“We will have to have sustained dialogue with regard to all issues. Sustained dialogue over a period of time is possible only when cross-border terrorism comes to an end,” Sinha said, rejecting Islamabad’s assertions whatever it could do has been done.

Asked if it was “realistically possible” to meet the Indian demand for a stop to alleged cross-border infiltrations “within months”, he recalled Pakistan abandoned and turned against Afghanistan’s Taleban to satisfy similar US demands.

“It means that if the whole power of the US is brought to bear upon you, you will change course, but you couldn’t care less about India.” India rejects any mediation in resolving the Kashmir dispute which caused three wars, dismembered Pakistan, pushed the two countries to nuclear brinkmanship and has robbed South Asia of its economic potential.