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Atlantique shooting: India rejects Pak claim for compensation

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh today dismissed Pakistan's claim of $60 million as compensation from India for shooting down its Atlantique maritime reconnaissance aircraft, saying Islamabad was making a futile attempt to cover its misadventure in Kargil and its frequent violations of Indian airspace.

Addressing a press conference at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in New Delhi, Singh said the Pakistani plane was on a military mission and had violated Indian airspace, flouting the Indo-Pak treaty of 1990.

The Pakistani foreign office yesterday handed over a note to the Indian charge d'affaires in Islamabad, Sudhir Vyas, demanding compensation for "the unprovoked and unlawful act of Indian military aggression against the unarmed Pakistani aircraft".

Jaswant Singh denied reports that some Pakistan-backed intruders are still occupying two posts in the Mushkoh Valley and Drass sub-sectors of Kargil.

He said no Pakistani solider is on the Indian side of the Line of Control. "This has been confirmed by the director general of military operations," he said.

Singh announced that the government has decided to adopt a pro-active policy towards Afghanistan because developments in the war-torn country have a direct bearing on India.

Afghanistan is a neighbour and developments there have resulted in the proliferation of small arms in South Asia. The Kargil conflict was a spillover of the Afghan crisis, he said.

As part of this pro-active policy, two senior officials of the external affairs ministry are leaving tomorrow for Washington to hold talks with American officials on the matter.

Alok Prasad, joint secretary (US) and Vivek Katju, joint secretary (IPA), will have several rounds of talks with senior State Department and National Security Council officials on the developments in Afghanistan.

This is for the first time that India and the US will be holding a dialogue on Afghanistan. The two countries had opposing views on the matter in the past.

The minister lashed out at the clandestine nuclear co-operation between Pakistan and North Korea. The secret deal between the two countries has a direct impact on India's national security, he said.

He said the Sino-Indian joint working group on the boundary question is expected to meet in October to review the situation along the Line of Actual Control.

Referring to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the minister said, "The new government will take a final decision on this issue after evolving a consensus."

He said the draft Indian nuclear doctrine is just an input for the government's consideration. He insisted that India's nuclear programme is not country- or threat-specific. It is a step that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee considered vital for India's defence and had the courage to take.

Jaswant Singh said India's voice is now being heard with greater respect and the country is being treated as a great power. He said India's nuclear programme is totally indigenous, a distinction which only two of the principal nuclear powers have.

He said the Vajpayee government faced its biggest challenge in the management of the international situation after the armed aggression in Kargil. But it handled the crisis, both militarily and diplomatically, with maturity and admirable restraint, winning India the kind of international support it never had, he claimed.

He claimed that the government had achieved in 17 months what earlier government could not achieve in three decades. This had resulted in strengthening India's position in the international fora and enhancing its claims for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council.

UNI

RELATED REPORT: Jaswant may meet Sharief, Aziz in New York

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