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Carry on Agra process: Schroeder
Vajpayee rules out meeting Musharraf in New York

NEW DELHI, Oct 29 : Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee tonight ruled out meeting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New York next month.

"If I have to meet Musharraf, I don’t have to go to New York. We can meet either in Delhi or Islamabad," he told reporters after an hour-long meeting with the visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who has urged both the countries to resume bilateral dialogue.

Vajpayee’s rejection comes a day after Musharraf urged India to resume the bilateral dialogue by picking up the threads from Agra following his discussions with Schroeder in Islamabad.

The Prime Minister said he and Schroeder discussed the global campaign against terrorism and the need to pursue it to its logical conclusion.

Addressing the joint press conference, Schroeder again advocated resumption of the Agra process between India and Pakistan but left the place and timing of it to the parties concerned.

"We underlined the importance of political will for firm action against every organisation and every country which funds, arms, trains or sponsors terrorism," Vajpayee said.

He said the German Chancellor had emphasised this in his own public speeches.

Vajpayee said the world should move forward to harmonise national legislations, cooperation in choking of all forms of assistance to terrorists and their organisations.

"Beyond identification and banning of terrorist organisations, we should also identify and outlaw individual terrorists so that they cannot carry on their activities under the banner of a new organisation," he said in an apparent reference to the need to take action against Jaish-e-Mohammad despite its name being changed.

Vajpayee said he and the German leader had agreed to meet annually either in New Delhi or in Berlin to reflect the vibrancy of the bilateral relations and further enhance them.

"We have had a meaningful and fruitful exchange of views on a wide range of issues. We agreed that both countries should work to give further concrete shape to the agenda for Indo-German partnership for the 21st century which we drew up last year," he said.

On the Afghan situation, he said the two sides agreed on an urgent need for international action to facilitate a broad-based, representative political structure in that country and to encourage reconstruction and rehabilitation on a massive scale in post-conflict Afghanistan.

The two leaders discussed the political, economic and humanitarian crisis which Afghanistan faced today.

Terming Schroeder’s visit as a "new milestone" in bilateral ties, the Prime Minister said Indo-German engagement and their interaction within the framework of the European Union and in international forums would continue to focus on crucial agenda items of today’s democratic world.

Welcoming the high-level business delegation accompanying the German Chancellor, Vajpayee said the two countries needed to exploit "more fully" the unrealised potential in commercial and economic ties.

The knowledge-based economy was an important area of focus for the bilateral partnership, he said, adding the two sides agreed that the next meeting of the bilateral Joint Commission would be convened soon.

Lauding Vajpayee for the economic reforms, Schroeder said India was on the right path and said its future could be better and more successful if it undertook faster privatisation of state-owned companies.

He said the expanding bilateral relations were in a "win-win" scenario and that there was no problem whatsoever between the two friendly countries.

The German Chancellor said he had invited Vajpayee for the summit meeting in Berlin.

Visiting German Interior minister Otto Schily, who had a 90-meeting with Home Minister L K Advani, said "we joined the position to extend cooperation in the battle against terorrism and to fight the menace in all its dimensions."

He told reporters after the meeting that Berlin "condemned" the blast outside the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on October one as also the September 11 attacks in the U S. "It is our common view that terrorist attacks in all its variety have to be condemned".

Specifically asked about Germany’s stand on cross-border terrorism in J and K, Schily said "we are against all sorts of terrorist attacks wherever they take place".

Later a joint statement issued by the two ministers said they "recognised that the situation in J and K cannot be left out in the international fight against terrorism."

Advani and Schily, who is accompanying German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on his three-day visit to India, also reached a consensus on holding further talks on a migration treaty.

"It was also agreed to have a mutual legal assistance treaty between the two countries so that cooperation in criminal investigation matters and drug trafficking could be ensured", the statement said. Terming his parleys with Advani as "constructive and good", he said Germany and India would cooperate to gather "better intelligence" on terrorist networks.

Schily said he discussed with Advani all follow up measures on the U N Security Council Resolution No. 1373 which obliges all countries to take adequate measures against terrorist groups.

Schily and Advani also agreed to step up the transfer of knowhow between the Federal Criminal Police office and Indian police to fight terrorism, cyber crime and drug trafficking.

Stating that the new form of terrorism had an international network of logistic links and operative structures at its disposal, the statement said "in the fight against terrorism, we therefore need increased global action by the security authorities for which we have to create the necessary conditions".

Asserting that a comprehensive binding international convention was required to regulate the principles of fighting terrorism and forms of cooperation, the statement said "Germany supports India’s efforts. Our common goal has to be to conclude a comprehensive convention against terrorism as soon as possible through constructive, targeted discussions".

"We will gear our work to the new challenges and mobilise resources. It is also a matter of extending bilateral cooperation," it added. (Agencies)

US ties with Pak won't threaten India's security

MUMBAI, Oct 29: A new code of conduct is evolving in the international community under which no business deals would be acceptable with the countries harbouring terrorists, US Ambassador to India B Blackwill said today.

"A new code of conduct is evolving in which the international coalition is coming to a general idea that it would not be internationally acceptable to have business deals with those harbouring terrorists", he told reporters at the American Centre here.

"The days are over when the international community believed that it was business as usual with countries harbouring terrorism", he said.

Blackwill said improvement in US relations with Pakistan after the September 11 terrorist strikes, was not at the cost of Washington’s ties with India.

The US-India relationship had transformed after the September 11 incident and was expected to witness positive changes on several fronts, including at the diplomatic and military level as also with regard to exchange of information, he said.

Reiterating that the global war against terrorism included the one faced by India, Blackwill said India’s problem was part of global campaign against terrorism.

On the issue of setting up of a new Government in Afghanistan, the Ambassador said it was the people of the country who would decide on the issue. "However, the US has made clear that no member of the Taliban leadership should be part of the new Government", he said.

About the post-Taliban dispensation in Afghanistan, Blackwill said the international community, including India, wanted a broad-based Government but it all depended on the people of the country, who would finally decide about it.

He said the ongoing US-led military campaign in Afghanistan to flush out terrorists was going to be a long affair. "However, its outcome should not be in doubt... Uprooting the terrorist network in Afghanistan".

"The list of terrorists continues to enlarge day by day, and more and more names are likely to appear on the list in the days to come", he added.

On the anthrax scare in US, Blackwill said though there have been several incidents, "it could not deter us from believing in its fundamental democratic values. We cannot abandon our fundamental beliefs because the ‘evil ones’ have launched an anthrax scare. If we lose this war, we lose everything that democracy stands for".

On Pakistan’s role in the fight against terrorism, he said President Musharraf had been helping the international coalition in uprooting the terrorist network in Afghanistan.

Asked if the US would halt its operations in Afghanistan during Ramzan, he said the issue was still under discussion as some countries were in favour of this while others were not.

Condemning the recent attacks on the Indian community in the US following the September 11 incident, he said, "these are terrible acts. All of them must be condemned with the strongest possible voice".

"America prides itself on its diversity. Indians have been a great source of strength in the US", he said. (PTI)