Why India Chose These 33 Nations For International Anti-Terror Outreach
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri addressed the seven delegations yesterday. All the delegations will be departing by Sunday.
New Delhi:
A grand diplomatic effort by India to approach almost three dozen nations with a message of combating terrorism follows the Pahalgam attack today. Seven delegations representing parliamentarians from all political parties will travel to foreign nations and the United Nations Security Council to present the nation‘s unity and determined stance against terrorism.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri addressed the seven delegations yesterday. All the delegations will be departing by Sunday.
How These Countries Were Selected
At Tuesday’s briefing, Mr Misri had explained on what criteria 33 countries were chosen for the outreach programme. Quoting him, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi said around 15 of them are part of the UN Security Council, with five permanent and 10 non-permanent members who change every two years.
In addition, the list comprises five other nations that will join the UNSC in the foreseeable future. Other nations whose voice is normally heard on the world stage were also chosen, she explained to journalists.
Ms Sarangi is one among the delegation headed by JDU’s Sanjay Kumar Jha that will be going to Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. It will be the first delegation to depart today for the outreach programme and Japan will be the first country.
Pakistan is already one of the rotating members of the Security Council and will be so for another 17 months. They would certainly attempt to put forward their stand and raise anti-India allegations, she asserted, highlighting India’s need for international outreach.
“Our government had wisely decided that MPs from different parties would go to these various countries together and introduce our story to the bureaucracy and political leaders there and introduce our position, and denounce Pakistan’s policy of spreading terrorism. That is our duty,” the MP from Bhubaneswar said.
She added that the delegation aims to convey the message to the world that India unites against terrorism.
The Global Outreach
The outreach program comes after Operation Sindoor, in which Indian troops had attacked terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) at the beginning of this month in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
The seven delegations would be led by the Congress’s Shashi Tharoor, the BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad and Baijayant Panda, the JDU’s Sanjay Kumar Jha, NCP’s Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Eknath Shinde, and the DMK’s Kanimozhi.
Mr Jha’s nine-member delegation, including BJP’s Ms Sarangi, Brij Lal, Prasan Baruah, and Hemang Joshi, and CPM’s John Brittas, would take off for Japan at about 11:30 am. The Trinamool Congress’s Abhishek Banerjee will be part of the delegation as well following party MP Yusuf Pathan‘s decision not to join the team.
The Mr Shinde-led delegation would go next with a team that includes Bansuri Swaraj, Sasmit Patra, and other MPs.
On their tour, the delegations would interact with the highest political leaders in other countries, including their prime ministers, foreign ministers, MPs, opposition leaders, intellectuals, journalists, and expat Indians residing in these nations.
