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'We hope the views of a responsible, sober country like India will be kept in mind in Geneva'

Speaking a few hours before the P-5 summit convened to consider the nuclear crisis in South Asia, Foreign Secretary K Raghunath said, "We hope the views of a responsible, sober country like India will be kept in mind in Geneva."

"If you take a balanced and sensible view of the whole matter you will see that this is not an area which is ridden with any particular tension. There are normal problems. After all, countries which are neighbours, there will be some difficulties," the foreign secretary told reporters in an impromptu briefing outside Parliament.

"In the case of Pakistan the background is quite wellknown. We have made it clear repeatedly that there is no animus, no kind of animosity towards the people of Pakistan. We want peaceful, constructive co-operative relations with Pakistan. The dialogue is meant to fulfill that purpose," he added.

Raghunath -- who was attacked by the Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution -- also sounded a positive note on Sino-Indian relations. "We want constructive, co-operative, non-confrontational relations with China based on, in the first place, making views of all the possibilities for co-operation between these two large and great countries. A relationship that is forward looking which takes into account the concerns of each side."

Discussing the prime minister's call for a global conference on nuclear disarmament, the foreign secretary said, "We have always stressed that the problem of nuclear disarmament is a global problem. It cannot be compartmentalised, it cannot be dealt in narrow geographical terms. Certainly not in terms of non proliferation and disarmament in South Asia alone. It can only be disguised in a large context. And in that framework our prime minister has talked about the value of a global conference"

"In fact this is not our idea. This is very much on the agenda of the non aligned world. This is an idea which has been discussed at the UN so we believe that international fora including the UN should discuss disarmament and non proliferation in the global context, and not in a limited, contrived or artificial context and certainly not in the context of South Asia," he added.

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