Stockholm Syndrome?

Question: The President of the European Parliament said that as per the EU Parliament Resolution India should sign the NPT and only then there will be a possibility of cooperation between India and the EU in the field of civilian nuclear energy. What is the position that India is going to take so that the EU can be brought around to Indian position?

Shivshankar Menon: You know our position and you do not need me to repeat what we think on either proliferation, or non-proliferation, or on cooperation in civilian nuclear energy. As far as I know, the EU does not have a common position on the issue of civilian nuclear cooperation with India. There are individual state positions. As you have seen, in the last two years certain countries have been very supportive, some less so, some have conditions, and some might have reservations. We have been talking to all the individual member-states and explaining our position and the potential also of the nuclear energy cooperation. It is our understanding that the position in terms of the amount of support that there is among EU member-states for civilian nuclear cooperation with India is better than it was before.

Question: Mr. Menon, in Prime Minister's interaction with the leadership of the UK and Finland, will India be sharing evidence ofPakistan's role in Mumbai blasts with these leaders? Do you have anything to say on the current status of the Galileo Project?

Shivshankar Menon: Counter terrorism is an issue that we have been discussing with the EU, with Finland, with the UK in the past. As I said in the introductory remarks, it is a big part of our strategic cooperative relationship with the UK. We will certainly be discussing all these issues which include our recent experiences as a victim of terrorism in India. We will certainly raise this. We will also see what can be done actually to improve the situation and to improve our common effort against terrorism. The UK too has suffered from terrorism of the worst kind. We will naturally try and see what we can do to. But I do not want to prejudge these discussions. This is an ongoing dialogue. At the end of the visit we will certainly tell you where we have gone with this dialogue.

On Galileo, the agreement was initialled last year, you would remember, during the summit. We hope to sign it at the end of this. I think it is almost ready for signatures.

Question: There is a school of thought that India has been projecting the role of Pakistan in international terrorism and this agreement on the joint mechanism signed in Havana. There is a school of thought which believes that the Indiangovernment is suffering from Stockholmsyndrome. Lots of people have been writing about it, I am not saying I believe it. When you go and speak about Pakistan and raise this issue, is it going to affect our position in any way?

Shivshankar Menon: We have not changed our position on the issue of terrorism, on how we think it should dealt with. It is a scourge. We see it as an ongoing dialogue, as I said. It is an issue we discussed before with these partners and we will discuss it this time. You cannot expect me to characterize thegovernment of India's position in the manner that any private commentator does. Everybody is free to have his opinion about what it is. But thegovernment of India's position as far as I can see has been absolutely clear right through. It is not determined by what anybody else does, it is determined by what we see on the ground, what we experience and how we think it shouldbe dealt with.

Question: Will the civilian nuclear cooperation be a priority at theIndia-EU Summit?

Shivshankar Menon: It will be one of the items that we will discuss. As I said to you, on the issue of civilian nuclear cooperation, as far as we know, there is no common position. We will certainly raise it with both the UK which has been very supportive in the past, and with Finland, and we will certainly discuss it.

Question: One of the issues in which the EU has been very involved is the dialogue with Iran where Mr. Solana himself is the pointsperson. In some of the recent meetings he has had with Mr. Larijani, there is a suggestion that insisting on suspension of enrichment prior to the dialogue beginning is perhaps not the best way because Iranians are saying that once the dialogue begins they can consider suspension. There seems to be a difference of opinion between the EU and the United States. Do we have a position on this? Is it likely to come up for discussion?

Shivshankar Menon: I am sure it will come up. In fact, if it does not come up, we will raise it because we would be very interested in hearing how far those discussions have proceeded and what Mr. Solana thinks of those discussions. At this moment, I do not want to comment. I do not want to get ahead of myself here. Once we know exactly what they think and how far they have got in those discussions, certainly we will share our position and our thinking. Maybe that is better done towards the end of the visit after we have had the discussions.

Question: Most of the EU countries are members of the NSG. Would there be some amount of lobbying to get the NSG to move ahead on the entire civilian nuclear cooperation and India-specific waiver?

Shivshankar Menon: We are in touch with individual NSG members countries. We have a Special Envoy who would do this. There is an NSG meeting in early October in Vienna. We will be using the opportunity of having them all in one place to meet them and to talk to them. But I think the formal taking up of this issue of civilian nuclear cooperation with India will probably have to await developments in the US legislature process. But certainly we are going through that exercise, talking to each of them. That is why I am saying at the beginning that it is our impression that as a result of this effort over the last year and a half or so, today many more countries in the NSG, in the EU are sympathetic and are positive about the idea of civilian nuclear cooperation with India, many more than there were say two years ago.

Question: Do we also plan to share the information that we have of the involvement of terror groups in Pakistan with the leaders whom the Prime Minister meets in the UK and Finland?

Shivshankar Menon: I just told you we have been discussing counter terrorism, possible action, with these countries for some time. We would certainly bring them up to date with what we have experienced and what we think and what we expect. This would a part of the dialogue.