November 4, 2001	Sunday	Shaba’an 17, 1422

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: During his three day visit to Moscow beginning on Sunday, prime minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee will sign with the Russian president Vladimir Putin, a joint declaration enjoining the two countries to adopt a common struggle against terrorism which will strengthen the existing cooperation between them.

To be known as the Moscow Declaration, the document will spell out a common strategy to be adopted in fighting against terrorism. It will detail the steps proposed to be adopted respectively by the two countries in their fight against terrorism.

This will be in addition to the other agreements for cooperation in military matters between them which has been finalised for their signatures. These include Russian cooperation for the manufacture of SU-30 fighters at the Bangalore factory of the Hindustan aircraft besides the off the shelf purchase of 50 such aircraft for which already an agreement has been signed. Moreover, negotiations are almost complete to conclude the eight year long talks which have been so far the pricing principles and other details. It is expected that these negotiations will be completed in time for the visit of Mr Vajpayee.

Apart from these agreements, there will be a detailed discussion on the future set up for Afghanistan, on which there is general agreement between the two countries that they would support the government of the northern alliance. There will also be discussions on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir with particular reference to foreign sponsored terrorism in the state.

From Moscow, Mr Vajpayee will go to Washington where president Bush will be hosting a lunch for him. Here again, as in Moscow, the main agenda for discussions will be international terrorism and Mr Vajpayee is likely to express his unhappiness over Washington’s reluctance to view trans-border terrorism in (occupied) Jammu and Kashmir with the same yardstick as terrorism emanating from Afghanistan.

On his way back, Mr Vajpayee will stop over in London to continue the conversation initiated by the British prime minister Tony Blair when he visited New Delhi last month on the Afghan situation and on India-Pakistan relations. Mr Blair’s visit has been followed by that of the French foreign minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, who like Mr Blair spent some time urging Mr Vajpayee that India and Pakistan “should start talking to each other”. Later speaking at a news conference along with the external affairs minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, he pointedly referred to India-Pakistan relations and said, “We want India and Pakistan to take steps to stop the deterioration of their ties” and expressed the hope that the two should deal with each other with a cool head over the Kashmir issue and it was necessary as any diversion of their attention from the united front against terrorism would be hampered.

Commenting on Mr Vedrine’s visit, French diplomatic sources cautioned that his visit or his talks here should not be compared to the Blair visit or that of the German Chancellor’s earlier visit. These sources maintained that while Mr Blair had come here as the personal ambassador of the American president, Mr Bush and Shroeder’s visit had been planned long ago, not so Mr Vedrine’s visit. Moreover, these sources point out that Mr Vedrine was first visiting New Delhi and Islamabad only subsequently. Speaking about the sale of arms by France to Pakistan, apparently which had been referred to by the external affairs minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, Mr Vedrine denied Indian fears that this would trigger an arms race in South Asia.

The flurry of foreign VIPs to New Delhi, included also the visit of the Greek foreign minister, Mr George Papendreou who came here from Islamabad. In his meeting with Mr Jaswant Singh, he assuaged Mr Papendreou and said “please put your mind at rest. We are reinventing the cold war” in answer to Mr Papendreou’s caution that Pakistan was an important ally in the international war against terrorism.

The Greek foreign minister also said at the news conference that Pakistan was not in favour of including Taliban in the new set being contemplated. All said, Mr Papendreou maintained at the end of his talks with Mr Jaswant Singh that India and Greece shared “common values” and similar approaches to global politics.

An assessment of the views that had been conveyed to India by the various foreign visitors here would probably be conveyed to the US defence secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld who was here on a brief visit as a part of his tour of the countries of the South Asian region particularly Pakistan.

This will be the first visit of a secretary of state for defence since the US lifted the ban imposed on India in the supply of sensitive technology following the Pokhran explosions. Naturally the American supply of such technological imports which had been held up because of the ban on then would probably be discussed.