‘India can handle Pak but US help welcome’

US President George W. Bush has assured Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani that he would persuade President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan to c...

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US President George W. Bush has assured Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani that he would persuade President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan to create a ‘‘climate’’ in which Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s peace initiative would succeed. This was disclosed by Advani while addressing mediapersons after wrapping up his two-day talks with Bush and other US officials yesterday.

Advani said that Bush told him that he had given the same assurance to Vajpayee during their meeting at St. Petersburg. Bush, according to him, registered his ‘‘admiration for Prime Minister’s initiative of April 18 and said that he deserves credit for it.’’ Advani pointed out that the Prime Minister had ‘‘gambled for peace and provided space for resolving differences, without forgoing the concern for security.’’

Regarding the differences between the perceptions of the two countries about Pakistan, Advani said he did not grudge the US focus on its own interests. ‘‘India would also like to do the same,’’ he added. However, he didn’t mince words while underlining that the ‘‘problem of terrorism is essentially our own and we would fight it on our own.’’

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Advani denied that there was US pressure for participation in policing Iraq. He pointed out that he had conveyed to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that ‘‘this matter is under consideration of the Government of India and a decision would come after taking all aspects into account.’’

He said the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had identified certain issues and sought some clarifications. ‘‘As a corollary, a Pentagon team would get to New Delhi next week to answer our questions,’’ he said. Advani stressed that he was keen on freeing the India-US relationship of a Pakistan-centric approach.

He referred to the US national security document of September 2002 which underlined that US interests required a strong relationship with India and that the US had begun to view India as a growing world power with which it had common strategic interests.

Advani said National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice had ‘‘conveyed to me that further steps are being taken to ensure progress on all issues on the bilateral agenda, including the trinity issues (civilian space cooperation, cooperation in nuclear energy and promotion of high-technology trade) in order to provide evidence of the changed relationship. President Bush had told me that he saw India as one of the leading drivers of the high-technology world and had contributed significantly to the increase in US productivity by providing Indian manpower, know-how and entrepreneurship.’’

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During his meeting with Attorney-general John Ashcroft, they had ‘‘focused primarily on cooperation in combating terrorism and compared notes on the problems confronting democracies in dealing with this issue.’’

Advani said the India-US joint working group on counter-terrorism will meet before August in Washington. He said: ‘‘We decided to strengthen institutional arrangements for exchange of terrorism-related information and intelligence and to continue our fruitful cooperation under the umbrella of the bilateral extradition treaty and the mutual legal assistance treaty, which is likely to be ratified by India shortly.

He said he had reiterated the PM’s invitation to Bush and had invited Rice and Ashcroft to India.