India on Thurday reacted guardedly to the invasion of Iraq by US-led coalition forces to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime.
"We are concerned about our national interest. India has taken into consideration its own national interest while dealing with the Iraq situation," Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani told rediff.com and expressed satisfaction over India's preparedness to deal with any eventuality.
In the past two weeks, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been briefed regularly on the Iraqi situation not only by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Finance, but also by the chiefs of intelligence agencies and the armed forces.
A source in the Ministry of Defence said: "The Cabinet Committee on Security have been briefed by armed forces about India's security concerns. How the war will impact us and how we will be monitoring our sea and land borders have been explained to the politcal leadership."
The Ministry of External Affairs briefings were about the diplomatic aspect of the crisis.
The government has walked the tight of rope of diplomacy on Iraq rather well in the past month or so. On the one hand India must take into consideration its friendly relations with Saddam Hussein and on the other its developing ties with the United States.
Just last fortnight, the Ministry of Finance briefed the political leadership on the impact of the war on India's energy scenario and on the economy as a whole due to a possible increase in oil prices and transportation costs.
The evacuation of Indians from the Gulf is being co-ordinated by Joint Secretary R M Abhyankar.
The intelligence agencies, meanwhile, have been keeping an eye on the likely impact of the war on India's internal security. Possible reprisal attacks by pro-bin Laden Pakistani groups, such as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, have been taken into account.
The government has gone on record in Parliament saying it would not provide any logistic support to the US or its allies in their operations against Iraq.
