14 January 2002 00:00
ON RUSSIAN-INDIAN COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL SECURITY
Russian-Indian cooperation has been positively developing in all areas in the spirit of the Declaration on Strategic Partnership between our countries. An intensive political dialogue has been established on bilateral, international and regional issues, Oleg Chernov, deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said. He heads a group of experts of the apparatus of the RF Security Council that on January 12 will set off for India.
In accordance with the Protocol on Cooperation between the Russian Security Council and the National Security Council of India the experts will hold consultations with their Indian counterparts on international and regional security issues.
The subject of the consultations, in which the representatives of the Indian power agencies are also due to take part, will be an extensive range of questions of cooperation between the two countries in the matter of promoting strategic stability and fighting international terrorism, religious extremism and separatism.
The problem of settling the tense situation that has arisen in relations between India and Pakistan after the terrorist act in the Indian parliament also will be discussed.
The barbaric terrorist act, perpetrated by Islamic extremists, has once again strikingly demonstrated the urgent necessity of adopting the most drastic and tough measures against those who trample on the most precious thing - the right of a human being to life. It is doubly outrageous and deplorable that this has been done in regard to the symbol of Asia's oldest democracy, the Indian parliament, said Chernov.
Russia, he stressed, knows not by hearsay the full depth of grief and suffering that terrorism, religious intolerance and separatism carry with them. And that's why the feeling of anger and hatred of the Indian people against the perpetrators of the bloody crimes and their spiritual mentors and backers in Pakistan are near and understandable to us. In Chernov's words, it is necessary to do everything to suppress all the kinds of terrorist activity emanating from the territory of Pakistan and to exert maximum efforts to restore the dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad and to achieve a speedy political resolution of tension between the two countries.
Between Russia and India, Chernov said, cooperation has been established in counteraction against international terrorism and the world narco-business that feeds it. The events of September 11 call upon our states not only to further build up bilateral efforts in this direction, but also to jointly work out and put forward initiatives for consolidating the world community for an uncompromising struggle against terrorism.
Russia is deeply interested in further building up the partnership with India on the international scene, which would help improve the world political climate and form an equitable world pattern. In developing ways to enhance international security in today's circumstances our country will closely cooperate with India, noted the deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council.
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© Publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
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