NEW DELHI: The visit of the Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to Rio de Janeiro to attend the earth summit will afford him an opportunity to have important discussions with the US president George Bush the Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif the Chinese premier Li Peng and the British prime minister John Major.

Rao who left June 10 had an overnight halt in Madrid and reached Rio on June 11. He will return on June 16 after a daylong stopover in Lisbon.

The talks with Bush assume significance in the context of issues like the sanctions imposed by the US on Indian and Russian space agencies in the wake of the rocket technology transfer deal. Notwithstanding the public controversy there have been exchanges on the quiet between Washington and New Delhi on this sensitive subject. Indications are that there is greater appreciation now of each other’s position and both are interested in containing the differences to the minimum possible level without allowing them to impair the encouraging improvement in bilateral relations.

While the US remains firm in its commitment to implement the nuclear non-proliferation treaty it is in fact not putting pressure on India to sign it in haste.

As in their previous meeting in New York in January Rao and Bush will exchange views on US participation in economic development of India in the light of the reforms now under way. In Washington’s reckoning India is. a responsible regional power

Rao is scheduled to meet Sharif on June 13. Their talks will inevitably cover Islamabad’s continued assistance to militants in

Punjab and Kashmir as well as the brutal attack on Rajesh Mittal counselor in the Indian high commission in Islamabad by Pakistani intelligence personnel which led India to postpone the sixth round of talks: between the foreign secretaries Whether the talks will pave the| way for early resumption of the dialogue remains to be seen. While New Delhi has expressed deep concern at the attack on the car of India’s consul-general in Karachi Dinkar Srivastava it has taken care to ensure that its response is measured. The government obviously doesn’t want to play into the hands of elements in Pakistan which might have engineered the incident to queer the pitch and scuttle the Rao Sharif talks.

Rao and Li Peng will be meeting at a time when bilateral relations have undergone a qualitative change after the two countries decided during the recent visit to China by the President R. Venkataraman not to set a time frame for settling the complex border question. India and China are to give more political and economic content to their relations and initiate steps to strengthen mutual confidence. Some progress in this direction has already been made after the two countries pulled out nearly three and a half divisions of their armies from the border. India and China have been cooperating closely on issues like environment (as in Rio) and the Uruguay Round of talks. They have also been trying to impress upon Washington not to take precipitate measures against countries opposed to the US stand on protection of intellectual property rights (IPR)

Article extracted from this publication >> June 19, 1992