Accusations that Pakistan helped a militant group bomb India’s embassy in Afghanistan cast a cloud yesterday over the start of an eight-nation South Asian summit aimed at fostering regional cooperation.
India, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, all fighting decades-old insurgencies, exhorted South Asian nations yesterday to pool efforts to fight terrorism, which they said posed the biggest threat to the region’s stability.
PHOTO: AFP
‘GREATER GRIP’
“Terrorism and its sanctuaries are gaining a greater grip in Pakistan,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a speech at the start of the two-day summit.
He said terrorists in Pakistan were getting “institutionalized nurturing and support.”
Afghanistan was the worst victim of international terrorism, Karzai said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the recent attack on his country’s embassy in Kabul and a string of bombings in Indian cities “are gruesome reminders of the barbarity that still finds a place in South Asia.”
“It remains the single biggest threat to our stability,” he said.
ACCORD
The summit is expected to approve an accord on fighting terror, including freezing funds used for attacks and agreements on the creation of a regional development fund and a food bank aimed at coping with skyrocketing food prices.
Tensions between India and Pakistan have heightened amid accusations that members of Pakistan’s intelligence service have aided Islamic militants fighting in Afghanistan and the Indian portion of Kashmir.
The New York Times reported on Friday that US intelligence agencies had intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officials and Islamic militants implicating the intelligence service in the July 7 attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, which left at least 41 people dead.
Pakistan dismissed the accusation as “rubbish” and promised to cooperate with neighboring countries to combat terror.
WORST OFF
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said yesterday that his country had suffered the most from terrorism, though it was afflicting all countries of the region.
The summit is being attended by leaders from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The region, home to one-fifth of the world’s population and many of its most impoverished people, has been plagued by terror attacks.
Pakistan is grappling with restive tribal regions along its border with Afghanistan, where fighting between insurgents and government troops intensified this week.
TALIBAN
The Afghan government is facing a resurgent Taliban and a spate of bombings has hit India in recent weeks.
Afghan officials have repeatedly said Pakistan is not doing enough to crack down on militants, an allegation which Pakistan denies.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was set up in 1985 to promote economic cooperation, but progress in most areas has been slow, mainly because of the rivalry between India and Pakistan, and the organization has often been derided as little more than a talk shop.
Also See: Fighting breaks out ahead of regional summit in Colombo
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan
RSS