Stop patronage of anti-India forces in Pak: Rao

India has demanded stopping "forthwith" the "patronage of powerful forces and institutions" within Pakistan to the groups involved in anti-India acts, saying it faces "hostile forces" from across the border with that country.

Describing "cross-border terrorism faced by India" as a "pivotal security challenge", Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said, "we face hostile forces across our border with Pakistan, although we have consistently stressed our support for the advancement of democracy" there in an atmosphere of peace, goals that the United States also identifies with.

She was delivering the keynote address at a conference on Indo-US relations in New Delhi, text of which was made public on Thursday. "The groups, which direct such attacks against India, have received the patronage of powerful forces and institutions within that country. It is vital that this support must stop forthwith. Any viable process of normalisation of our relations with Pakistan is essentially dependent on this requirement since it is unrealistic to think otherwise," she said.

She also sought greater Indo-US cooperation and more frequent consultations on security-related issues including the threat of international terrorism and the evolving security architecture in Asia. "There is a growing consensus that the increase in terrorist activities in Afghanistan is linked to the support and sanctuaries available in the contiguous areas of Pakistan. Increased terrorist violence in our neighbourhood is a cause for grave concern," Rao said in the address on Tuesday.

"That these forces operate across boundaries with impunity was evident in the November 2008 terrorist attack on the city of Mumbai," she said. Rao said it is equally critical for the US and the global community to pay adequate attention to and realise the situation both in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that the cross-border terrorism that emanates from Pakistan against India are manifestations of the use of terrorist ideologies to promote unscrupulous political or institutional agendas.

Talking about the challenges and opportunities presented by India's land and sea borders, she said the challenge is security-related. It involves addressing the clear and present danger of terrorism and religious extremism from across the borders, illegal immigration, smuggling of arms and fake currency, as also unsettled boundaries, the last being particularly the case with India's largest neighbour China, Rao said. "China's demonstrable economic strength and its growing military capabilities are a matter of fact and we must incorporate such factors into our calculus of the emerging 21st century scenario in the Asia Pacific," she said, adding that China was now the largest trading partner of India.

Talking about the regional situation, Rao also appreciated the commitment of the US to the stabilisation of the situation in Afghanistan and to intensify efforts to eradicate terrorism so that the terrorist groups in both Afghanistan and Pakistan cannot have field days in future. Indo-US cooperation in counter-terrorism is an important dimension of "our bilateral relationship and it has come into sharper focus in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack of November 26, 2008," Rao added.

Dismissing Pakistan's charges of involvement of India in fomenting unrest in some cities in that country, Rao said "Pakistan's concerns of the perceived threat in the East and on Indian activities in Afghanistan need to be unequivocally rebutted. "It is also essential to ensure that the international aid that Pakistan receives including that from the United States is not diverted for anti-India purposes as had happened in the past. We have reiterated a number of times that we harbour no aggressive designs on Pakistan," Rao said.