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Gujral to seek backing for permanent seat in UN during visit abroad
Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral will seek support
for India's candidacy for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security
Council during his nine-day visit to Tanzania, the United States and Italy, which begins on Thursday, September 18. The main purpose of his visit is to address, on September 24, the 52nd session of the UN General Assembly, which commenced on September 16.
He will meet US President Bill Clinton on September 22 and Pakistan Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharief the next day.
In the first leg of his tour, Gujral leaves for Dar-es-Salaam on Thursday. There, Gujral will have official talks with President
Benjamin William Mkapa on a wide range of bilateral and
international issues, besides reforms in the UN, the expansion of the Security Council,
South-South cooperation, disarmament, and issues related to the World Trade Organisation.
Tanzania had, in a ''historic step,'' had declared in February 1996
that it accepted Jammu and Kashmir to be an integral part of India.
It had applauded the peaceful nuclear explosion by India in
1974 and abstained from voting in the UN General Assembly last
year on the resolution on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty along with India.
After a two-day visit, Gujral will head for New York.
His scheduled meetings with Clinton on whose invitation he
advanced his trip to New York by a week, and with Sharief, will be
the focus of considerable attention.
The US has been trying to make India and Pakistan settle their bilateral problems,
especially on Kashmir.
Gujral will also meet President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe in New York.
He will have discussions with the foreign ministers of several developing and developed countries as also with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The prime minister will be accompanied to New York by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Minister of State for External Affairs Salim Sherwani, principal secretary to the PM N N Vohra, and Foreign Secretary K Raghunath.
At his meeting with Clinton, the US president is likely to be assisted by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, National Security Advisor Samuel Berger and Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth.
Gujral will participate in the general debate on September 22 and address the UN General Assembly on September 24.
At the Gujral-Clinton summit, a number of bilateral and international issues are likely to be discussed, including economic and trade relations, nuclear non-proliferation, especially in view of US concerns over India and Pakistan's nuclear and missile programme, and the UN reforms.
Gujral is expected to make a strong case for a permanent seat for India in the Security Council.
In Rome, on the last leg of his tour, Gujral will have official talks with his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi, who was to pay an official visit to India in April last but could not because of political developments in Italy then. Prodi is likely to undertake his visit early next year.
The prime minister will also call on President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and Pope John Paul.
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