Indian Diplomacy : Time To Recheck

An overview of the world's largest Democracy - The Republic of India's diplomatic policies in the year 2001. Indian diplomacy faced testing Times in coping with the September 11 terror strikes in the us, a new chill

in ties with Pakistan, war in Afghanistan, change of regime in Bangladesh and massacre of the royal family in Nepal where stepped-up Maoist violence was a source of concern.

Indo-Pak relations, which showed no signs of getting back on track, nose-dived in the wake of the terror attacks on parliament on December 13. Finding Islamabad reluctant to take firm action against Pakistan-based terrorist groups Lashkar-e-toiba and Jaish-e-mohammad, accused of carrying out the strike, India first made out a demarche demanding a ban on these organizations and later recalled its high commissioner Vijay K Nambiar.

The terror attacks on the twin towers of the world trade centre in New York and pentagon headquarters in Washington put under focus international terrorism, an issue India has been highlighting for over two decades.

While swiftly condemning the acts, New Delhi also tried hard to strongly put across to the international community its serious concerns on Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism in jam and Kashmir and other parts of the country as also the risks inherent in involving Islamabad in the us-led action in Afghanistan.

But India soon found the balancing act by Washington tilting in favour of Pakistan, whose assistance the us needed to track down terrorist mastermind Osama bin laden, Taliban Chief Commander Mullah Omar and other militant leaders of Al Qaeda.

However, all was not lost as India's intensive diplomatic efforts yielded results with the international community assuring it that the global campaign against terrorism went "beyond" Afghanistan and included terrorism in Kashmir.

The developments in Afghanistan reinforced India's long-held position of supporting establishment of an independent, broad-based, multi-ethnic, fully representative government in Kabul.

New Delhi's desire for forging close ties with Afghanistan saw reopening of the Indian chancery in Kabul which was closed in 1996. On its part, the new afghan administration sent to New Delhi a number of senior ministers to thank India for its unstinted support to the anti-taliban alliance and also to seek its assistance in the massive task of economic reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

Reflecting India's commitment to forge close ties with the Hameed Karzai regime, external affairs minister Jaswant Singh flew to Kabul on December 22 when the new administration assumed office.

The change in regime in neighbouring Bangladesh with Begum Khalida Zia, known for her anti-India learning's, wresting power had New Delhi coming to grips with new equations with Dhaka.

Reports of atrocities on Hindu minority in Bangladesh within days of Khalida Zia riding her party to victory in the elections were a cause of concern to India.

Developments in Nepal also saw trying times for the foreign office mandarins. The Himalayan kingdom was first rattled by the royal massacre that left King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and several members of the family dead.

The Maoist violence saw India supporting declaration of emergency in Nepal and offering to extend all possible assistance to deal with insurgency.

Change of government in Sri Lanka was also keenly watched here. The new government's desire to establish close linkages quickly with New Delhi was evident with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe undertaking a three-day visit here this month.

He had wide-ranging discussions with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other leaders on the entire gamut of bilateral relations besides discussing regional and international issues with focus on the scourge of terrorist.

The year saw a marked upswing in new Delhi's relations with the US, Russia, Japan, Germany and France but hopes of breaking the indo-Pak impasse came to a naught despite a summit-level meeting between Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Agra in July.

Ahead of the summit, the media hype had made one believe that a major breakthrough in indo-Pak relations was round the corner. But there was disappointment in the Indian camp when Musharraf made it clear that he was interested in only pursuing his one-point agenda on Kashmir.

To the discomfiture of the Indian side, Musharraf stole the limelight in the midst of the parleys with a breakfast meeting with Indian editors, which received wide publicity.

A surprise visitor to the capital was former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who said Washington should press for the restoration of democracy in her country. She met Vajpayee and other leaders during her stay here.

Indo-us relations continued to grow under the new bush administration with the year witnessing a series of high level exchanges, which gained momentum after the terror strikes.

Close on the heels of visits by us secretary of state Colin Powell and senior leaders of the bush administration, Vajpayee visited Washington at the invitation of president bush where the two leaders agreed to a comprehensive and all-round intensification of bilateral relations over a wide canvas.

New Delhi feels that Washington's decision to lift economic sanctions, imposed on India in the aftermath of the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests, would facilitate high technology transfers cooperation in space and defense and collaboration in the civilian applications of atomic energy.

Indo-Russian relations got a major boost with the visit by the Prime Minister to Moscow when the two sides signed the Moscow declaration against terrorism and agreed on the contours of future development cooperation in defense and atomic energy.

The year-end visit by Vajpayee to Japan helped set the stage for enhanced indo-Japanese cooperation. Tokyo too has announced lifting of restrictive economic measures clamped after the nuclear tests.

Convergence of views on major international issues brought India and Britain closer to each other within days of British premier Tony Blair's visit to India primarily to discuss the afghan situation.

Vajpayee stopped over in London on his way back from the US to carry forward the dialogue process with the British premier.

Relations between India and Germany touched a new high with the visit of German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder October end. The German leader shared Indian position that firm action must be taken against every organization and country which funds, arms, trains or sponsors terrorism.

On his part, the external affairs minister has undertaken visits to France, the us, Britain, Germany and Saudi Arabia to put across India's views on the global campaign against terrorism for this fight to go beyond Afghanistan.

New Delhi hosted the second India-European union summit when the two sides signed a joint vision statement for enchanted cooperation in information technology and underscored the need for removing trade barriers to promote investment and step up economic cooperation.

Sino-india relations moved ahead at a slow but steady pace. Chinese leader Li Peng's visit to India in January cleared ground for what he described as deepening understanding, fostering friendship and strengthening cooperation.

With the September 11, October one and December 13 terror strikes bringing new focus to India's sustained campaign against international terrorism, new Delhi is likely to find more friends in backing its stand on the issue.