NEW DELHI, 10 September 2003 — India and Israel vowed yesterday to fight the common threat of “terrorism” together as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon paid his first visit to New Delhi to boost fast-growing political and military ties. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, hosting a banquet for the Israeli leader after one-on-one talks, said an “aspect of our common experience is the menace of terrorism.”
“Bilaterally and on the international plane, we are contributing to the global fight against terrorism. It is a menace that particularly targets democratic societies, which have to fashion a global and comprehensive response to tackle it,” said Vajpayee. “Our defense cooperation rests on a foundation of mutual understanding of security concerns.”
Sharon, ceremonially received earlier yesterday at the 340-room British-built palace of India’s president, expressed hope his visit would cement ties that have grown rapidly since Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalists took power in 1998. “We are very much interested in developing and strengthening relations with India,” Sharon told reporters after inspecting an honor guard.
“We regard India to be one of the most important countries in the world; we share our belief in democracy and I hope that my visit here will contribute in strengthening our relations with India and developing them,” said Sharon.
Later Sharon — a military veteran whose autobiography is entitled “Warrior” — sprinkled rose petals and laid a wreath in the blue and white of the Israeli flag at the tomb of slain apostle of nonviolence Mahatma Gandhi, who led India’s independence movement.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yosef “Tommy” Lapid said Israel could help India as both countries faced a common threat by “fanatics”. “We can train and teach and supply materials we have developed in fighting terrorism. We have developed a very advanced technology,” said Lapid.
India and Israel are fighting militants in Kashmir and the Palestinian territories respectively. Israel since establishing diplomatic relations with India has become New Delhi’s second largest military supplier after Cold War ally Russia.
An Israeli official said on condition of anonymity that the countries will likely within weeks seal a billion-dollar sale of Israel’s sophisticated Phalcon radar system.
The Phalcon deal came up in nearly an hour of talks here yesterday between the director general of Israel’s Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Amos Yaron, and the head of India’s air force, Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, an Indian official said.
The two countries signed six agreements during Sharon’s visit on protecting the environment, fighting drug trafficking, easing visa rules on diplomats and cooperating in health and medicine, culture and education. Sharon is the first Israeli prime minister to visit India, which established diplomatic relations with the Jewish state only in 1992 and for decades has been a vocal supporter of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Vajpayee alluded to the past relationship with the Palestinians, telling the banquet: “West Asia (the Middle East) and the Gulf region are part of our extended neighborhood with which we have long-standing cultural and civilizational links.
“We would very much like to see an end to violence and restoration of peace in these troubled lands,” the Indian premier said.
Thousands of people took to the streets in major Indian cities yesterday to protest the visit by Sharon but police foiled attempts to disrupt the Jewish leader’s visit.
Protests were staged in New Delhi and in the western city of Bombay, where he will travel tomorrow, the last day of his visit.
Demonstrations were also held in the cities of Madras, Bhopal, Guwahati and Calcutta, witnesses said.
In New Delhi, some 2,000 communists carrying banners and placards tried to march up to the Israeli Embassy, shouting anti-Sharon slogans. “Butcher Sharon, go back, go back,” screamed the protesters from various Indian communist parties which have been staunch backers of the Palestinian cause.
Anti-riot paramilitary soldiers blocked the protesters, who included women and students, but the rallyists changed tack and squatted on a street leading to a hotel, now fortified for Sharon’s stay.
Also in the capital, chief Muslim cleric Syed Ahmed Bukhari led a march of some 2,000 slogan-shouting Muslims from the Jama Masjid.
Waving black flags and placards that read “Down with Sharon, Sharon go back,” the marchers walked a stretch of about a kilometer from the mosque but stopped short of a police cordon where they quietly dispersed after brief prayers. Earlier, police stopped activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from marching on the Rajghat tomb of Mahatma Gandhi ahead of Sharon’s trip.
In Calcutta, more than 800 supporters of the leftist Socialist Unity Center of India held a protest march on an arterial road before setting fire to an effigy of Sharon.
They held placards with slogans such as “US henchman Zionist Sharon, go back.”
In the western economic hub Bombay, more than 100 people staged a protest in the busy Bhendi Bazar Muslim area, chanting anti-Israeli slogans before they were rounded up by police. As they were being led away to waiting police vans, the protesters chanted slogans such as “Sharon is the enemy of humanity”, “death to Sharon” and “Ariel Sharon should be hanged.”
