France backs Indian membership of Security Council By Ranvir Nayar PARIS: France has offered its support for New Delhi's bid to become a permanent member of an enlarged U.N. Security Council as part of an effort to build a long-term partnership with India. French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, who will visit India this week, also said a solution to Kashmir is possible only through an Indo-Pakistani dialogue in line with the Shimla accord. Vedrine said India can bank upon French support in its effort to find its legitimate place in the international community. "The President (Jacques Chirac) had said after the visit to your country that the direct consequence of the growing responsibilities of India in the international scene is that the time has come for India to occupy the place of a permanent member of a reformed and enlarged United Nations Security Council. This is an evidence of how India can rely upon us," Vedrine told India Abroad News Service in an interview. Vedrine arrives in New Delhi on Thursday for a two-day visit, the first by a foreign minister since Alain Juppe travelled to India in 1994 He said bilateral ties have made significant progress in the last two years, with the January 1998 visit to India by French President Jacques Chirac setting the stage for a "stable, dense and durable partnership." "France wants to establish a long-term global partnership with India, which today has a far more important role to play on the world stage, in view of the end of the Cold War, the strength of the Indian economy and the place occupied by India in the international organisations," Vedrine said. "In the traditional vision, India was a regional power of what we called the Third World, present on the international scene due to its role in the Non-Aligned Movement," he said. "But today India's role is defined by its emergence as one of the six or seven major powers in a multipolar world and of course by being the world's largest democracy. It is taking this reality into account which has brought France to seek a long term global partnership with India," he added. On Kashmir, Vedrine said "the recourse to a violence that is often supported from outside and infiltrations across the Line of Control have ended by casting doubt on the real intentions of one and the other." He added, "But since the Shimla accord of 1972, France, like the European Union, believes that the Kashmir issue can be solved only through a bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan. Vedrine said France understood the difficulties in the way of an Indo-Pakistani dialogue, "but at the same time we should not lose sight of the global consequences of an aggravation of the crisis in Pakistan." "I am thinking of the developments in Islamic extremism, terrorism and drug trafficking, arms and even nuclear weapons. Hence it is in the interest of all to support stability in Pakistan. It is a responsibility of Pakistanis themselves, first of all. But at the same time, we hope that India will do everything it can to encourage the moderate forces in Pakistani society," the French foreign minister added. But France itself has made no move forward on restoration of democracy in Pakistan after the military coup by General Pervez Musharraf. At the time of the October 12 coup, senior French officials had suggested that a time frame of about six months may be sufficient to gauge Musharraf's true intentions and that they would then start bringing pressure on him. Vedrine said France was still watching the situation. Vedrine is most bullish about Indo-French defence ties, which he says have grown strongly in the last two years. "The defence relations have advanced very satisfactorily. It is essential that our defence communities get to know each other better and benefit from each other's experiences." On the question of India signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), Vedrine said the rejection of the treaty by the United States Senate has made it even more imperative for India to sign the treaty. He described the CTBT as an essential instrument of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and a guarantee of global stability. "That is why India's signing of the CTBT will contribute to reinforcing this regime and will mark India's determination to play a significant role in the domain of non-proliferation. It cannot but work in favour of India's security by avoiding a destabilising technological race in the domain of nuclear weapons." India announced a voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests soon after it carried out a series of tests in May 1998. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said yesterday that no decision would taken on whether or not to sign the CTBT "unless we achieve the widest possible consensus" on the issue. (India Abroad News Service)
For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
|Disclaimer|
For comments and feedback send Email
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 1999.