INDIA: Russia and India yesterday strongly opposed any unilateral military action against Iraq and cautioned against interference in its internal affairs, writes Rahul Bedi, in New Delhi.
The Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, and India's Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, urged continued efforts to prevail upon Iraq to co-operate with international inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction, in a wide-ranging joint declaration they signed after extended talks in New Delhi.
"Both sides strongly oppose unilateral use or threat of use of force in violation of the UN charter as well as interference in the internal affairs of other states," the Delhi Declaration stated at the end of Mr Putin's two-day India visit.
Resolving the Iraqi issue was possible only through political and diplomatic efforts in line with international law, it added.
A UN resolution gives Iraq, which denies possessing any weapons of mass destruction, until Sunday to provide a detailed list of its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes. But President Bush, who has repeatedly stressed his administration's determination to depose President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, is demanding a more aggressive hunt than the one being executed by UN inspectors in Iraq for atomic and other lethal weapon systems.
Russia wholeheartedly supported its old ally India in demanding an end to the Pakistan-backed insurgency in the northern, disputed Kashmir region.
Reaffirming their strategic partnership in a joint statement, the two sides stressed "the importance of Islamabad implementing in full its obligations and promises to prevent the infiltration of terrorists across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and at other points across the border." At a news conference later Mr Putin urged Islamabad to "liquidate" the entire terrorist infrastructure operating in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The joint statement said India and Russia, facing Islamic insurgencies in Kashmir and Chechnya, respectively, were determined "to enhance collective and bilateral efforts to prevent and suppress terrorism".
"Such measures should be directed also against those states, entities and individuals who support, fund or abet terrorists or provide them shelter or asylum to engage in cross-border terrorism. There should be no double-standards in the fight against terrorism," they said.
Meanwhile, vodka was used as a disinfectant to wash President Putin's cutlery during his stay in Delhi. Staff at Mr Putin's five-star hotel in New Delhi said that before Mr Putin's arrival, a Russian microbiologist used vodka to wash all the knives and forks that he and his wife Lyudmila might use, as a precaution against the capital's legendary stomach infection, known as "Delhi belly."