British Prime Minister David Cameron was mired in a diplomatic row with Islamabad yesterday over comments made on a trade-driven trip to India about the “export of terror” from Pakistan.
Pakistan’s ambassador to Britain accused Cameron of “damaging the prospects of regional peace” with his remarks on Wednesday in the southern Indian information technology hub of Bangalore.
The foreign ministry in Islamabad reminded the British prime minister of Pakistan’s sacrifices in the fight against terror, adding that militant networks, “as the UK knows full well,” know no borders.
Cameron’s trip to India was meant to showcase his new foreign policy based on Britain’s commercial interests, but the minefield of India-Pakistan relations and regional security risked overshadowing his pitch for investment and open trade.
Asked about unrest in South Asia on Wednesday, Cameron responded with a warning to Pakistan against becoming a haven for militant groups or giving them support to strike targets in India or Afghanistan.
“We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country [Pakistan] is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India or whether to Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world,” he said.
His remarks came days after the leak of secret US military documents that detailed alleged links between Pakistan’s intelligence services and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
They were splashed on the front page of every major newspaper in India, which has long accused Pakistan of harboring and abetting extremist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba — blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
“We should be very, very clear with Pakistan that we want to see a strong, stable and democratic Pakistan,” Cameron said. “It should be a relationship based on a very clear message — that it is not right to have any relationship with groups that are promoting terror.”
In London, Pakistani High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan voiced his government’s deep disappointment, saying Cameron had chosen to ignore Pakistan’s “enormous role” in the war on terror.
“He seems to be more reliant on information based on intelligence leaks, despite it lacking credibility or corroborating proof,” said Hasan, writing to the Guardian newspaper. “A bilateral visit aimed at attracting business could have been conducted without damaging the prospects of regional peace.”
In Islamabad, foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said: “Terrorists have no religion, no humanity, no specific ethnicity or geography.”
“Terrorists’ networks, as the UK knows full well, mutate and operate in different regions and cities,” Basit said.
The issue of South Asian regional security, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, is sure to be raised again when Cameron was scheduled to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna yesterday, but Cameron will be keen to keep his two-day visit focused on its main purpose — Britain’s drive to take bilateral trade and economic ties with the former jewel in its colonial crown to a new level.
As well as his meetings with leaders in New Delhi, he will also attend a summit on expanding economic relations between Britain and India, one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Cameron is heading the largest British delegation to travel to India in recent memory, including a host of senior Cabinet ministers and corporate bigwigs.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not