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Afghan crisis : World leaders cancel visits to India |
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The September 11 terrorist strikes in the US and the developments in this region, among other factors, have led to a spate of cancellations of State visits to New Delhi. After Hungary and South Korea, China has informed the Ministry of External Affairs that its Prime Minister Zhu Rongji’s forthcoming visit to New Delhi has been cancelled. Rongji was to visit India from November 9 to 11. The visit was being seen as crucial, particularly in the backdrop of events in the region after the September 11 terrorist strikes in the United States. New Delhi was looking forward to the visit as Rongji had already been to the sub-continent earlier this year. He had visited Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka in May. Official sources said the prevailing “situation” in the region led to the cancellation of the visit.
The last prominent Chinese leader to visit New Delhi was top politburo member Li Changchun who was in New Delhi in May this year. The series of high-level contact between India and China was initiated by Chairman of the Chinese National People’s Congress Li Peng who arrived in New Delhi in January this year. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh is expected to travel to Beijing this month. Sources said that as of now the visit was on but there could be last-minute changes. China is not the first country to call off the visit to India. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already cancelled his visit to New Delhi. He was to be in New Delhi from October 14 to 17. South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, who was scheduled to visit India from October 22 to 24 has also cancelled his visit. Among the number of visits lined up this month is that of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The number of cancellations has cast a shadow on Schroeder’s visit wUS and Russian forces have launched a joint operation to track down Osama bin Laden and his followers and have crossed into the Afghan territory to reach Pamir mountain ranges. British forces are also planning to launch anti-Taliban operations from southern Afghanistan.
A one thousand strong US elite force is moving towards Uzbekistan in the first major deployment of US ground forces before a possible strike against Afghanistan, while the crack light infantry division is flying to Uzbekistan from Fort drum, New York. Its mission includes protecting US troops in Uzbekistan. An indication to this effect was given by US officials accompanying Defence Secretary Rumsfeld to Uzbekistan. Mr. Rumsfeld had discussions with Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Tashkent on Oct. 5 over payment for using Uzbekistan’s facilities and security guarantees for the country in case of a backlash from the Taliban. The Uzbek President also sought American help in forcing Tajikistan, which has tense relations with Uzbekistan, to close down the military camps of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [IMU] on its territory. The Taliban-backed IMU is committed to overgrowing the secular regime of Uzbekistan and replacing it with a fundamentalist caliphate.
Russians had pointed at the suspected hideouts and provided route maps to some sites which were used for storing the nuclear-tipped missiles by the former USSR. The Russian troops taking part in the operation to close in on Pamir are fluent in Pusho, while many have working knowledge of Dari.
Which was expected to take place in the last week of this month. Prime Minister Vajpayee is expected to travel to Moscow in the first week of November.
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