----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2000 5:38 AM Subject: [STOPNATO] Russia Urges India To Join Shanghai 5 STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM [For international terrorism read U.S./UK-backed Wahhabism, from the Philippines to Bosnia, From Kosovo to Kashmir, from Chechnya to Xinjiang....And of course this expanding alliance - Russia, China, India and the five CIS Central Asian republics - are also protecting themselves from the big terrorists in London and Washngton.] Hindustan Times Russia may urge India to attend Shanghai 5 Fred Weir (Moscow, August 11) RUSSIA MAY urge India to attend the Shanghai Five in order to intensify regional efforts to combat terrorism after powerful blasts in both countries which killed dozens of people and underlined the urgency of the problem, experts say. "India and Russia have been talking for a while about co-ordinating work in the struggle against terrorism, but so far it is all at the level of declaration," said Alexander Chudodayev, foreign policy expert with the daily Segodnya. "But the Shanghai Five has a full-scale programme, developed at its July summit meeting in Dushanbe," he reiterated. The Shanghai Five is a central Asian security organisation which includes Russia and China, but not India. "Russia will make it a priority to draw India into this group. Its a very logical step", Mr. Chudodayev added. On Tuesday a bomb planted in an underpass at downtown Moscow's busy Pushkin Square exploded, killing 8 and wounding nearly 100 people. Authorities have blamed the blast on separatist rebels from Chechnya, who it is said receive aid from countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. During the same week in India a bomb burst in Srinigar on Thursday killing 11 people and injuring 25. "It is coincidence that these events happened in separate countries in the same week, but it underlines a common problem that must be jointly dealt with," said Mr. Chudodayev. Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh held talks with President Vladimir Putin and Security Council chief Sergei Ivanov during the June visit to Moscow, at which the subject of combating international and cross-border terrorism topped the agenda. But apart from regular exchanges of information, the two countries have yet to create functioning mechanisms to further this goal. President Putin is stated to visit India in early October this year, where he will sign a declaration of 'strategic partnership' between the two countries. In a letter to Vladimir Putin expressing condolences for the victims of the Pushkin Square blast, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said that incidents "should make us resolve to fight the menace of international terrorism jointly and with added determination". ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
