NEW DELHI, 19 December 2003 — India is not bound by US pressure regarding Iraq, it has no intention of ignoring the Arab world and is moving progressively toward normalizing of ties with Pakistan, it was indicated yesterday.
Dismissing probability of India conceding to United States regarding Iraq, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told Rajya Sabha said yesterday that the government was under no pressure to send troops to Iraq and that India will act only according to the dictates of its own interest. Replying to a question raised by Manoj Bhhatacharya, Sinha said, “The government of India does not act under any pressure.”
Sinha recalled that during Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s meeting with US President George Bush in US, the issue of India sending troops to Iraq was not taken up. Sinha referred to Vajpayee’s UN address stating, “It is imperative that the people of Iraq should be empowered to determine their own future, to rebuild their own nation.” He said that India had already revealed its stand favoring early restoration of sovereignty of Iraq to the Iraqi people and in this regard had taken a positive note of the UN Security Council Resolution 1511 of Oct. 16, 2003.
On Saddam Hussein’s arrest, Sinha said, “We have taken note of the arrest and hope that he would be treated under Geneva conventions.” He said it was up to the people of Iraq to decide how he should be tried.
New Delhi also dismissed reports of it ignoring the Arab world. In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs Vinod Khanna told Rajya Sabha, “The government is aware of some press reports of India ignoring the Arab world, which are not factually correct.”
Drawing attention to high-level visits exchanged between India and the Arab countries, Khanna said that India’s relations with the Arab world were historic and substantive.
On the Indo-Pakistan front, analysts noted that the resumption of talks yesterday on reviving the railway link between the two countries was another sign of rapprochement.
