Storm as Tharoor says Saudi Arabia can be interlocutor (Roundup)
By IANSSunday, February 28, 2010
RIYADH - India sees Saudi Arabia as a “valuable interlocutor” in relation to Pakistan, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Sunday said. After his remark sparked a storm, he clarified he was not making Riyadh a mediator on India-Pakistan issues.
Not convinced, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is now in Riyadh along with the minister, to explain. Even sections of the Congress party were upset, saying India would never agree to any third party role in India-Pakistan relations.
Indian government sources reacted quickly to say that New Delhi’s opposition to third party meddling in India-Pakistan ties had not changed.
As the day progressed, it was clear that Tharoor’s statement had overshadowed the second day of Manmohan Singh’s visit to Saudi Arabia, the first by an Indian prime minister in 1982.
“We feel Saudi Arabia has a long and close relationship with Pakistan and that makes Saudi Arabia even a more valuable interlocutor for us,” Tharoor told Indian journalists in Riyadh.
As the remark triggered a furore, Tharoor clarified that New Delhi’s desire to seek the support of Riyadh on terror-related issues involving Islamabad did not mean giving it the role of a mediator.
He was asked if India will seek Saudi support to influence Pakistan to address Indian concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistani territory.
Later, he tweeted to say: “Good day of mts (meetings), marred in some Indian media by misunderstanding of word interlocutor. An interlocutor is someone u spk to, nothing more.
“If I speak to u, u are my interlocutor! I mentioned the Saudis as OUR interlocutors, i.e. the people we are here to speak to. Some misinterpretation.”
In Riyadh, Tharoor added that Saudi Arabia had its own issues with Al Qaeda.
“We expect to have a constructive conversation on the issue. The tentacles of terror have already spread from Afghanistan to Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, and latest is Yemen,” he said.
“When we tell them about our experience, Saudi Arabia listens as somebody who is not in anyway an enemy of Pakistan but rather is a friend of Pakistan.
“…therefore, I am sure (it) will listen with sympathy and concern to a matter of this nature,” he said.
He rejected media reports that claimed he had used the word ‘mediation’ or ‘mediator’.
“No chance of my saying Saudi Arabia should be a mediator… Never said that or anything like it,” Tharoor added, as the controversy refused to go away.
Despite his clarifications, the BJP went on the offensive.
BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar reiterated India’s known stand that no third party can intervene in issues between India and Pakistan. “Tharoor’s remarks are objectionable and irresponsible,” Javadekar told IANS.
Although the Congress did not react officially, a source close to party president Sonia Gandhi said: “India’s position on ‘no’ to third-party mediation in India-Pakistan issues is unchanged. There is no change in the Congress position.”
India has always rejected any role for any other country in its disputes with Pakistan, particularly over Jammu and Kashmir.
India and Saudi Arabia are expected to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, where Riyadh has played a key role since the mujahideen waged war against the Soviets.
It was only of three countries to recognize the Taliban regime. It has taken the lead in supporting plans to reintegrate the Taliban in a post-US Afghanistan.
This is not the first time Tharoor has landed in a controversy over his remarks on foreign policy issues.
Tharoor faced hostile reaction from his own partymen when he allegedly questioned the relevance of non-alignment and Third World-centric foreign policy espoused by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister.
