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India committed to helping small states: Sinha
Abuja, Dec 05: External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has urged smaller states to build capacities to deal with the threat of terrorism as terrorists were in search of soft targets in unsuspecting locations.
Abuja, Dec 05: External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has
urged smaller states to build capacities to deal with the threat of
terrorism as terrorists were in search of soft targets in
unsuspecting locations.
Addressing the sixth meeting of the Commonwealth ministerial
group on small states here yesterday, Mr Sinha said it was
unfortunate that very little attention had been paid to this issue
until now. The meeting of the group was held to coincide with the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM) being inaugurated by
Queen Elizabeth tomorrow.
The minister also stressed the need for capacity building in small states and offered India help in this as the country had a high degree of political will to support small states and to work in partnership with them . He called upon small states to indicate the manner in which India could help them.
He said that as the largest country in the Commonwealth, India was committed to promoting the interest of small states and lauded the Commonwealth for bringing the issues of the small states to the forefront.
He said India was already helping several countries through bilateral and multilateral channels. This included helping Mauritius to create capacity including infrastructure for the international meeting which is to be held in august next year to review the Barbados plan of action for sustainable development of small states.
India has become a dialogue partner of the Pacific island forum and concluded a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with Caricom countries.
India has decided to set apart 15 seats for each of the South Pacific forum countries for training under ITEC from this year. India has also set aside ten training slots for each of the small island states of the Caribbean. Four experts were being deputed for improving sugar production in Fiji, and experts were expected to be sent to Nauru for repair and rehabilitation of a mainframe computer, desalination plant and a power generator. India was also committed to supplying dialysis machines to Samoa, and was helping Trinidad and Tobago, Lesotho and many other smaller states. Bureau Report
The minister also stressed the need for capacity building in small states and offered India help in this as the country had a high degree of political will to support small states and to work in partnership with them . He called upon small states to indicate the manner in which India could help them.
He said that as the largest country in the Commonwealth, India was committed to promoting the interest of small states and lauded the Commonwealth for bringing the issues of the small states to the forefront.
He said India was already helping several countries through bilateral and multilateral channels. This included helping Mauritius to create capacity including infrastructure for the international meeting which is to be held in august next year to review the Barbados plan of action for sustainable development of small states.
India has become a dialogue partner of the Pacific island forum and concluded a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with Caricom countries.
India has decided to set apart 15 seats for each of the South Pacific forum countries for training under ITEC from this year. India has also set aside ten training slots for each of the small island states of the Caribbean. Four experts were being deputed for improving sugar production in Fiji, and experts were expected to be sent to Nauru for repair and rehabilitation of a mainframe computer, desalination plant and a power generator. India was also committed to supplying dialysis machines to Samoa, and was helping Trinidad and Tobago, Lesotho and many other smaller states. Bureau Report