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India friendly to Israel but supports Palestine too
New York, Sept 24: In a rebuff to critics of India`s growing friendship with Israel, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today unequivocally came out in support of Palestinian statehood and said that the violence in the region must stop.
New York, Sept 24: In a rebuff to critics of India's growing friendship with Israel, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today unequivocally came out in support of Palestinian statehood and said that the violence in the region must stop.
Notwithstanding its friendly relations with Israel, Vajpayee asserted India's principled stand on Palestine and said, "We continue to champion the cause of the Arab world."
"An independent Palestinian state should be established, those who have been uprooted should be resettled and violence must stop," he said at a community reception hosted here by India's ambassador to US, Lalit Mansingh. Violence is no solution to any problem, and "whatever is happening there, we are against it," said Vajpayee, who is also expected to refer to the West Asia crisis in his address to United Nations General Assembly tomorrow.
Vajpayee praised Congress president Sonia Gandhi for meeting the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he visited India, ignoring the boycott call by some of her supportive political parties and the third front.
This was a good gesture on the part of Sonia Gandhi, he said. She has carried out her responsibility as leader of the Opposition by meeting Sharon and "I thanked her," said Vajpayee.
Deploring the demonstrations and the boycott call, Vajpayee said that Sharon was a guest of India and he should have been welcomed by all. Vajpayee said that when he was in the Opposition, he respected the convention that political parties should not politicize foreign policy and this should continue.
He said that among those opposed to Sharon's visit were some former Prime Ministers.
Vajpayee also praised External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, who was present there, for discharging his duties with full responsibility.
Sinha said that India has changed unrecognizably in the last five years under the prime ministership of Vajpayee. "It is today a different country."
The External Affairs Minister said that wherever he goes as a representative of India, including here, he is treated with respect and "with a degree of importance that perhaps was not there 20 years ago."
Ambassador Lalit Mansingh said that the census of 1900 showed that there were just 2000 people of Indian origin in the US. The latest census puts the number at 1.8 million. With people of Indian origin in the Caribbean and other countries, the number goes up to two million.
Recalling the contributions made by people of Indian origin to India's independence from British rule, he said that today they have "arrived," with the highest per capita income of any ethnic group in the US. He had no doubt that their talents will be available to realize the Prime Minister's dream of turning India into a developed country in 20 years. Bureau Report
"An independent Palestinian state should be established, those who have been uprooted should be resettled and violence must stop," he said at a community reception hosted here by India's ambassador to US, Lalit Mansingh. Violence is no solution to any problem, and "whatever is happening there, we are against it," said Vajpayee, who is also expected to refer to the West Asia crisis in his address to United Nations General Assembly tomorrow.
Vajpayee praised Congress president Sonia Gandhi for meeting the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he visited India, ignoring the boycott call by some of her supportive political parties and the third front.
This was a good gesture on the part of Sonia Gandhi, he said. She has carried out her responsibility as leader of the Opposition by meeting Sharon and "I thanked her," said Vajpayee.
Deploring the demonstrations and the boycott call, Vajpayee said that Sharon was a guest of India and he should have been welcomed by all. Vajpayee said that when he was in the Opposition, he respected the convention that political parties should not politicize foreign policy and this should continue.
He said that among those opposed to Sharon's visit were some former Prime Ministers.
Vajpayee also praised External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, who was present there, for discharging his duties with full responsibility.
Sinha said that India has changed unrecognizably in the last five years under the prime ministership of Vajpayee. "It is today a different country."
The External Affairs Minister said that wherever he goes as a representative of India, including here, he is treated with respect and "with a degree of importance that perhaps was not there 20 years ago."
Ambassador Lalit Mansingh said that the census of 1900 showed that there were just 2000 people of Indian origin in the US. The latest census puts the number at 1.8 million. With people of Indian origin in the Caribbean and other countries, the number goes up to two million.
Recalling the contributions made by people of Indian origin to India's independence from British rule, he said that today they have "arrived," with the highest per capita income of any ethnic group in the US. He had no doubt that their talents will be available to realize the Prime Minister's dream of turning India into a developed country in 20 years. Bureau Report