New York, Sept 22: Ahead of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's crucial meeting with US President George W Bush on Wednesday, India today made it clear that the question of sending troops to Iraq was dependent on it being seen as a common UN concern, the request coming from the Iraqis themselves and the public opinion back home. "Sending of troops to Iraq will be acceptable to the people at large in India only if it is seen as clearly responding to a common concern in the UN and the request comes from Iraqis themselves," said Vijay Nambiar, the country's permanent representative at the UN here. India, he acknowledged, is one of the countries, the US is anxious to see contributing troops. But New Delhi has pointed that it can be considered only in the context of "Indian public opinion" and the context of the overall political process which will result in the eventual restoration of sovereignty to the people of Iraq, he said at a briefing of Indian correspondents. As Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will become the first Indian leader to address the UN for five consecutive years, Nambiar pointed out that the visit this time assumes significance as the relevance of the world body has come under the scanner. "This time the relevance of the organization is itself being questioned and the Secretary General, Kofi Annan, himself has raised these questions very directly," he said informing that these will form the subject of the general debate next week.

They will also be raised at non-aligned ministerial meeting, the commonwealth meeting, meeting of the G-77 and other organizations and bilaterals at the heads of government and ministerial levels.

The Prime Minister will be addressing the General Assembly on September 25 after meeting President Bush the previous day. There will also be some regional meetings dealing with various issues including the Middle East, and tri-continental meeting involving Brazil, India and South Africa.
Terrorism, peacekeeping and other such issues will also figure prominently but on the terrorism issue, some countries have been able to stall the progress on the comprehensive convention sought by India by raising extraneous issues by arguing that those who engage in terrorism must be exempted from that definition if they are part of a "freedom struggle" or "national liberation."

Bureau Report