The Hindu : India worried over spiral of violence in Iraq: Sinha

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

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India worried over spiral of violence in Iraq: Sinha

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, FEB. 13. "India remains deeply concerned at the growing spiral of violence in Iraq," the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, said after talks on a wide range of issues with his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, here today.

"We have welcomed the involvement of the United Nations in the process," Mr. Sinha said adding that everyone was looking to the findings of the U.N. delegation that had been sent by the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to Iraq.

Making it clear that only the U.N. could lend credibility to the process of normalisation in Iraq, Mr. Sinha said that returning sovereignty to the Iraqi people must be the starting point of establishing democracy and peace in that country.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Sinha said the India-France bilateral relationship was "exceedingly good" and there were no problems on the bilateral front.

According to Mr. de Villepin, the twin issues of terrorism and non-proliferation came up for discussion. The Iraq issue, too, figured in the talks that were held at the Hyderabad House.

'France has not lost out to any one'

Asked whether France had lost out to countries such as Russia and Britain in getting major defence deals through [France and India are known to be discussing a major submarine deal as well as the sale of civilian aircraft from Airbus], Mr. de Villepin only said he had good discussions on these issues. "France has not lost out to anyone," was Mr. Sinha's response. He said he had briefed his counterpart on the latest developments between India and Pakistan.

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