ABP Live - English News, Today’s Latest Breaking News in English, Online English News
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday claimed he had won India key support from the United Arab Emirates against state-sponsored terrorism and took pot shots at Pakistan, while insisting he believes in dialogue, days ahead of bilateral talks.
He also publicly rapped his government's own embassy in Abu Dhabi, targeted his predecessors, overlooked even former NDA Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's foreign policy efforts and claimed credit for long-active schemes.
Modi fluffed his lines, too, referring to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as that country's President.
"Today, we have told the world our relationship (between India and the UAE) isn't only about Rs 4.5 lakh crore investments," Modi told a cricket stadium packed with an estimated 40,000 Indian community members in Dubai this evening.
"Today we have told the world we stand together, side by side, against terrorism in all its forms."
Modi's address to the Indian diaspora capped a two-day trip to the UAE, where he visited a mosque, walked through a neighbourhood of Indian labourers, drove down to a "hi-tech" city, and talked diplomacy over a lavish lunch spread.
A joint statement by India and the UAE after an afternoon meeting between Modi and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the crown prince and number two in the UAE hierarchy, underscored a deepening strategic relationship.
The relationship has traditionally been trapped in economics, including Indian purchase of oil, and issues concerning the 2.6 million Indians in the UAE. On Monday, too, the Gulf nation committed to investing $75 billion in India.
But it is in the talks on terrorism that India insisted it had snatched a major victory.
The UAE and India "call on all nations to fully respect and sincerely implement their commitment to resolve disputes bilaterally and peacefully without resorting to violence and terrorism", the joint statement said.
"They condemned efforts, including by states, to use religion to justify, support or sponsor terrorism against other countries."
It remains unclear, however, whether the UAE will give up support for "Kashmiri aspirations" --- a euphemism Gulf states and other members of the Organisation of Islamic Countries have frequently used to poke India on its territorial disputes with Pakistan.
The national security advisers of India and the UAE will meet every six months, and the nations will host regular counter-terrorism meetings, Modi and the crown prince decided at a time the spectre of a growing Islamic State is worrying both nations. The UAE is part of the US-led coalition engaged in aerial warfare with the IS in Iraq and Syria.
India has piloted a comprehensive convention against international terrorism (CCIT) at the UN, aimed at punishing states that distinguish between terrorists, supporting some by arguing their cause legitimate.
Pakistan, which calls Kashmiri separatists "freedom fighters", has managed to garner support from other West Asian Islamic nations against the convention.
But on Monday, the UAE agreed to work with India "together for the adoption of India's proposal on the CCIT", the joint statement said.
"I want to thank the crown prince for that," Modi said at the evening address before speaking about Pakistan.
"Good Taliban, bad Taliban, good terrorism, bad terrorism, will not work any more. The world needs to split into two groups --- those states that support terrorists and those that are completely against terrorists."
He took more jibes at Pakistan, speaking days ahead of talks between national security adviser Ajit Doval, who has travelled with Modi to the UAE, and his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz.
Modi referred to a proposal for a regional motor vehicles agreement that he had pushed at a regional summit in Kathmandu last November.
"We tried to get collective connectivity in Kathmandu, but as you know, some people had problems," he said today, pausing for effect, referring to Pakistan's opposition that prevented Saarc from inking it. "But should we stop because some people have problems?"
Yet Modi also said: "Only dialogue can resolve disputes, even between neighbours."
He highlighted diplomatic accomplishments under his government, such as the transit pact India had inked with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal to circumvent Pakistani opposition to the bigger Saarc agreement.
He referred to two online grievance registration systems the ministry of overseas Indian affairs had started --- called the Madad and e-migrant mechanisms --- through which diaspora members can seek help from New Delhi or their nearest embassy.
But late in his speech, Modi also spoke of how "the Indian Community Welfare Fund has been set up, to assist those of you in any trouble, with financial help". The fund was set up under UPA rule five years ago.
Talking of the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh, Modi cited how "last September (in New York) I had met Bangladesh Rashtrapati (President) Sheikh Hasina". Hasina is Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
Modi said he knew of the Indian community's concerns at the efficiency of the e-migrant system in the UAE. He then went on haul up his own mission -- unusual for a visiting Indian leader.
"I have told them, 'You have to improve the system within 30 days'," Modi said.
As he had in South Korea and Canada, Modi obliquely criticised past governments. He is the first Indian Prime Minister in 34 years to visit the UAE.
"There are 700 flights between India and the UAE each week, yet no Indian PM has found the time to visit here in 34 years," he told a group of Emirati investors in the morning before repeating himself to the Indian community in the evening.
"From Delhi, it does not take even 70 minutes to fly to Nepal. "But before I went last year, no PM found the time for 17 years."
Modi had overlooked that the first BJP Prime Minister, Vajpayee, had visited Nepal in 2002 for the Saarc summit
Hope our Pakistani masses stop sucking the thump of muslim ummah and Islam ka qila....crap
countries do what is in their best economic/security interests - security and economy go hand in hand you cant have one without the other.....that's one thing I think we are learning slowly. Pakistan does and should do the same.
