During the official confrontation between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Chinese Minister Yang Jiechi, India has created a buzz on the facet of stapled visa to Indians from Jammu and Kashmir.
Krishna also signed a mutual collaboration to come up with a hotline between the premises of Indian PM Mr. Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. In addition, launch of the Indian Festival celebrations also marked its presence in this mutual assembly.
According to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, India has cleared its intentions of not accepting stapled visas and the intentions are cleared in front of the Chinese officials during this visit. She went on to comment that it is required to show more sensitivity on the concerned issue and further elaborated that the facet of Beijing providing stapled visas to Indians is a matter of ongoing debate. Another issue is China’s regular participation in issues linked with PoK.
Commenting on the cyber security, Rao confirmed that the issue has not been discussed in detail, but matters of these kinds require utter concern.
Other issue which formed an integral part of the discussion was India’s curiosity in becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Nothing much was said or heard in this regard. Another issue was the facet involving Afghanistan, to which, both the parties agreed to show mutual touch on the regional issues.
The meeting came as a critical part to enhance the bilateral relationships of both the countries.
Racial attacks have done ample damage to Indian-Australian relationship! Now attempts are going on to fix these gaps. After Shane Warne, it’s the turn of Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith to ease out the tension further!
On his three day visit to India, the minister would meet his Indian counterpart SM Krishna, who has already shown his active participation in the whole issue. Apart from this much debated issue, the two Ministers would discuss the security concerns for the Commonwealth Games!
The Australian minister affirmed that both the ministers would have talks on solving the recent hurdles faced by Indian students and immigrants in Australia. He emphasized on maintaining a “Zero Tolerance” towards these attacks and providing assurance on Aussie’s keenness to handle these assaults on Indian students!
The Aussie minister said that he will acquaint the Indian government on various measures taken by the officials to maintain a safer ambiance for Indian students. His visit to India comes a month after his Indian counterpart expressed his concerned over the whole issue and the effect that it is having on the relationships of both the countries!
Courtesy the racial attacks, plenty of Australian delegates, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, official Julia Gillard and now Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith have visited India on a regular basis. These visits are surely aimed at easing out the tension between both the countries and building a foundation of a healthy relationship in future! The recent assaults have not only hurt Indian sentiments but also harmed the bilateral ties between both nations!
Aussie government has released a dossier, which elaborates that more than 50 percent of the culprits arrested since March for performing attacks on Indians were below the age limit of 18 years. The document has been handed over to India.
Earlier, External Affairs Minister of India, S.M. Krishna, asked the Aussie government to provide the details of the action taken by police with regard to the attacks performed on the Indians.
According to a report by The Age, “the government of Australia initially had some restrictions for providing information to the Indian government.”
The dossier, crafted by the Victoria police, showed that amongst the 18 high-profile cases, two of them still remain unsolved. Reports show that two out of them were run over by a train, three cases are unsolved, while an arrest of 33 suspects have taken place for the rest 13 cases.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and the police officials have not quoted anything official on the incident yet.
It is fact that the deeds are performed by a few “blockheads,” but it results in spoiling the image of the entire country as a whole! The series of attacks have only depleted the relationship between the two countries. It is high time that government of both the countries should come out with some serious amendments and rules to stop this catastrophe further!
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, in a recent press conference in Adelaide, spoke on the recent flurry of attacks on Indians in Australia and termed them as “regrettable.”
He further asked the Indian government to keep an outlook on these attacks; a day after Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna warned that failure to come out with any stringent security measure from Australian side may hamper the relations between the two countries.
Rudd stated that these are difficult matters for both the countries and the Australian government is working through them in a “practical and effective” manner. He went on to say that these incidents should be seen in a broader context, for instance, acts of violence against Australian students or students of other ethnic background, etc.
Also, a vast majority of applicants studying in Aussie premises are embraced by the Oz community and one should keep these things into its context before addressing the issue of attacks in Australia, he added.
The comments came immediately after Minister S.M. Krishna spoke on the issue of coming out with rigid security measures for the Indian students living in Australia. But are the words by Kevin Rudd enough to ensure the security of Indian students living in Australia? Despite all this, there has been NO seepage on the continuous racial attacks on the Indians!
The security of cross border has become a nightmare for India. Additionally, the aspect of Illegal Immigration is becoming one of the major causes of worries for every country in the world. In an attempt to stop Illegal Immigration, Indian Union Home Minister P Chidambaram held a meeting with his Nepal Minister Bhim Rawa on 18th January 2010.
Other facets such as Cross Border activities and various measures to strengthen the Immigration points were also highlighted during the meeting. Nepal counterpart confirmed that issues on securities of both the countries, terrorists crossing the border, criminal activities, etc. formed an integral part of the discussion held with Indian Union Home Minister. Mr. Rawa also spoke on the measures taken by his country to stop promoting the issuance of fake Indian currency and said that their government are strictly working on this aspect.
During his recent visit to Nepal, External Affairs Minister S.M Krishna nurtured his concerns on the cross border activities as well as the illegal activities linked with fake Indian currency. He further stressed on the need of “constant vigil” on the borders.
Mr. Krishna said that they have been given assurance that Nepalese soil won’t be used for any criminal activities against its neighbors.
Coming back to the recent meeting, Mr. Rawa told reporters that views have been discussed on mutual security so that terrorists find it difficult to make Nepal and Indian borders as soft targets.
One can only hope that these attempts from both the governments would play a huge role in removing Illegal Immigration from its roots!
This is not the first time that Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, is finding himself in trouble, thanks to his activities on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor/status/7064299241)!
His recent tweet saw him asking one simple question: Whether making Indian Visa rules more stringent would be good from the point of Indian Tourism? He also observed that the killers who caused the brutal attack on 26/11 had no visas! He has been majorly criticized for making these views public on the much applauded Micro Blogging Site- “Twitter.”
Senior Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi further commented on his activities that the Minister will soon understand the “political culture”. He further said that old habits take their own time to change!
In his latest tweet, Tharoor mentioned that he missed “brouhaha” in his observations for the amendments in the new Visa rules. The tweet came a day after the minister was publicly reproached by his boss, SM Krishna, saying that the minister should not have discussed such matters in public.
