The Hindu : India, Pakistan must cooperate in action against terror: Prodi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 01, 2003

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India, Pakistan must cooperate in action against terror: Prodi

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI NOV. 30. The fight against terrorism must entail daily action and is not only about making declarations, the European Commission President, Romano Prodi, said when asked about the role played by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan.

In an exclusive interview to The Hindu on Saturday, Mr. Prodi said: "We have always pressed Pakistan in the direction of active cooperation against terrorism. In spite of difficulties, progress has been made and we are really... pressing [the Pakistanis] to make further progress."

"It is clear that the fight against terrorism is not only a kind of declaration, but also daily, daily action... we know the difficulties... but it is in the interests of the countries [India and Pakistan] to cooperate in the common action against terrorism."

Asked if the European Union had any opinion about the nature of a "final solution" between India and Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Prodi said the E.U. completely respected the autonomy of the two countries to arrive at their own decisions.

"Even if we have a [a final solution in mind], we can't express our views because we respect the possibility of India and Pakistan finding a final, final agreement on Kashmir," he argued.

Expressing confidence that the recent contacts between India and Pakistan would deepen, Mr. Prodi was of the view that both countries had "interests" in finding a peaceful agreement. "The terms of this can only be decided by you and your counterparts, your friend, Pakistan."

To a question why an agreement on the Galileo satellite navigation project was not reached during Saturday's India-E.U. summit, Mr. Prodi said a final accord was not expected yesterday.

"We have a political agreement and will start negotiations [on details] and they will not be long... the most important was the political agreement. Galileo is a project which links the participants strongly... it will be vital for India and European lives."

Is the E.U. ready to respond to public opinion against the war in Iraq to counter unilateralist tendencies in the world? "A big, big majority of European public opinion was against the war, which did not have the backing of the United Nations."

"What is important is that six months after the end of the war there was a poll inside the E.U. which demonstrated that the opinion had not changed. European people are still against the war and what is even more interesting is that there is no difference between public opinion in countries that participated in the war and those who were against it."

Mr. Prodi, however, made it clear that a common foreign policy was not within the grasp of the Union. "This is one of the most delicate points on the agenda of the new [E.U.] Constitution that is being discussed these days."

"We will make some progress by having a common Minister for Foreign Affairs.

It will be a task to coordinate this action, but he will have, in any case, limited power in the beginning... there will not be a real, common foreign policy for a while, but step by step, we are going in that direction.

"But this is not a failure... we started with economic cooperation [in the E.U.]... now we are dealing with internal home and justice affairs. We are starting out with foreign policy. We need time, but we will have a common foreign policy."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has recently expressed concern about a common asylum policy being discussed by the E.U. What about claims that the E.U. is making asylum regulations very tough while promoting democracy abroad?

Denying the charge, Mr. Prodi said the E.U. was discussing issues related to distinguishing between people seeking asylum and those trying to reach Europe for a "better life."

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