India for coordinated, effective response against terrorism

Ajay Kaul

Phuket (Thailand), Jul 23 (PTI) Without naming Pakistan,
India on Thursday highlighted the problem of terrorism
emanating from its neighbourhood against the backdrop of the
Mumbai attacks and strongly pitched for developing a
"coordinated", "effective" and "focussed" response among the
Asian nations to defeat the menace.

Terrorists were becoming sophisticated and developing
networks threatening the world, Union External Affairs
Minister S M Krishna said addressing the Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum meeting here, also
attended by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

The issue of terrorism came up in a big way at the
Foreign Ministerial conference of 27 countries, including the
US, against the backdrop of the Jakarta bombings last week.
Indonesia raised the matter, making a fervent appeal for
action on both "collective and country-specific basis".

Krishna joined in and pointed out that terrorism knows no
boundaries and collective efforts needed to be made to defeat
it. He referred to the Mumbai attacks and other incidents and
highlighted how India has been a victim of terrorism that
emanates from the neighbourhood.

Without naming Pakistan, he drew the attention of the
conference to the cross-border linkages to the problem being
faced by India while referring to the 26/11 attacks.

"Terrorism has become more sophisticated. Terrorists have
an effective network among themselves and if effective
response is to be initiated against it, there has to be
greater cooperation among the countries of the region in terms
of sharing of intelligence, etc," Krishna told the meeting.

Later, briefing media persons on his intervention, the
minister said if terrorism has to be fought in an effective
manner, "we have to sharpen our response apparatus, focus (on)
it and intelligence available to each country must be
immediately shared with other country so that possible attacks
can be prevented and thwarted."

Asked whether he referred to Pakistan in his intervention
on terror, Krishna said though he did not mention, "it is
obvious where the terrorism is coming from (in India)."

He said the meeting arrived at a consensus on the
issue, which was an encouraging development. "We will have to
build on it."

On broader relations between India and the ASEAN region,
Krishna said New Delhi is keen to forge stronger ties because
of "complementarities which are visible and felt".

He said he had pledged to strengthen the relationship
further and it would be reciprocated. PTI