The Hindu : Front Page : Foreign Minister soon: Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 13, 2006
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Foreign Minister soon: Manmohan

N. Ravi

Brasilia: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday told the media on board the aircraft taking him to Brasilia that there was a need for a full-time Foreign Minister and he would induct one soon after his return from the trip to Brazil and Cuba on September 18.

"There is a need for a full-time Foreign Minister, and hopefully when I go back there should be a Foreign Minister in place," he said.

Asked if there would be a wholesale reshuffle of the Ministry, he said as of now he was thinking only of taking in a Foreign Minister.

In response to a question whether the occurrence of so many blasts in the last three years did not represent a failure of intelligence, he said there was a need to strengthen the intelligence set-up. There was considerable scope for improvement and the Government was working to strengthen intelligence at the grass-roots level and also improving the coordination among States and between the States and the Centre.

Asked if he would rule out the hand of any Hindu terrorist organisation in the Malegaon bomb blasts, he said it would be inappropriate to rule out anything. What was important was fair investigation that would inspire confidence.

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