New Delhi
14 December 2009
A "good Taliban" is an oxymoron, Russian Ambassador to India Alexander
Kadakin said.
"Can a Nazi be good? Can a fascist be good?" he wondered aloud, contesting the idea of
a distinction between good or moderate or reconcilable Taliban and bad or extreme
Taliban.
"Such notion does not exist," Mr Kadakin elaborated, in an oblique reference to US
President Barack Obama's speech in which he expressed his desire to support efforts
by the Afghan Government "to open the door to those Taliban who abandon violence",
besides announcing a troops surge.
The Russian envoy was sharing his views on the situation in Afghanistan, which, along
with Iran and China, were among the issues that Dmitry Medvedev and Manmohan Singh
discussed over the private dinner at the Russian President's Dacha outside Moscow.
Making a distinction between good and bad Taliban is an anathema to New Delhi, which
sentiment found an echo in Moscow.
"India and Russia have a similar assessment," Mr Kadakin said about Afghanistan,
taking care to point out that the inborn quality of the Indo-Russian ties remains in spite of
distractions.
Mr Kadakin said that the Russia-India-China or RIC trilateral talks has shown great
promise, and India and China can work together without letting their border dispute come
in the way of cooperation in areas of mutual benefit.
The Singh-Medvedev dialogue also touched upon the complicated issue of borders, with
the Russian side sharing the history of their relationship with China and how an
outstanding border problem with China was settled.
According to Mikhail Titarenko, a Russian political scientist and specialist on China, the
situation in Afghanistan will test the capabilities of RIC as the quest for reconcilable or
moderate Taliban gains ground.
Prof Titarenko, who was in New Delhi for the RIC Track-II dialogue, said that India can
borrow some useful elements from Russia's experience of border-resolution with China,
such as confidentiality and reducing mutual suspicion.
Meanwhile, an Indo-Russian nuclear pact is expected to be signed during Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India in March 2010. It will cover areas such as joint
scientific research, implementation of nuclear power projects and setting up of fuel
supply arrangements.
Both sides successfully concluded the negotiations on the nuclear pact during Prime
Minister Singh's recent visit to Moscow.
No comments:
Post a Comment