PM offers to walk ‘extra mile’ with Pak

1 March: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took his subcontinental peace offensive to Saudi Arabia today, telling the kingdom’s highest consultative body that New Delhi was willing to “walk the extra mile” with Pakistan if it co-operated and acted decisively against terror.

“We seek co-operative relations with Pakistan. Our objective is permanent peace because we recognise that we are bound together by a shared future. If there is co-operation between India and Pakistan, vast opportunities will open up for trade, travel and development that will create prosperity in both countries and in South Asia as a whole,” Singh told the Majlis-al-Shura during his three-day visit to the rich and influential Arab nation.

This is a variation of the “meet Pakistan more than halfway” theme that the Prime Minister articulated in Parliament last summer, but its significance may lie in that terror strikes on India since then have not shaken India’s resolve to keep its hand extended.

Singh could not have been unaware of his stage — the Saudi legislature — and audience, nor of the underlying import of his assertion. As an oil-rich nation and home to Islam’s holiest shrine, Saudi Arabia wields immense political, economic and cultural authority over the Muslim world. And as a frontline Arab ally of the US, it is also a partner in the war on terror.

But on several international fora, including the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Saudi regime has consistently made common cause with Pakistan, seldom paying heed to India’s case against the export of terror from Pakistani soil. Singh was clearly seeking to draw Saudi attention to the grim terror situation east as well as west of Pakistan.

For, equally significant was Singh’s reference to war-ravaged Afghanistan, where Indians have become high-priority targets.

Making a case for India and Saudi Arabia as joint victims of terror, the Prime Minister said: “History teaches us that the scourge of terrorism must be confronted with determination and united effort…. Nowhere is this challenge greater than in Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan have suffered for too long. They deserve an atmosphere of peace and the opportunity to pursue a life of dignity and hope.”

He added that the pursuit of terror in the name of religion or any other cause or grievance could not be acceptable to civilised societies. “It has no sanction in any religion…no sanctuary should be given to those who promote terror, violence or instability in the country.”

Welcoming the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Majlis-al-Shura, Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Sheikh, paid tribute to the stand taken by India on international issues.


The Telegraph