India's top diplomat lauds Mubarak's role in boosting peace

Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said before leaving Cairo that India was looking forward to President Mubarak's visit to India, describing his talks in Cairo with President Mubarak, Prime Minister Dr. Atef Ebeid and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa as well as a large number of Egyptian officials as being extremely successful.

He referred to the positive results of the meetings of the joint higher Egyptian-Indian committee under the two countries foreign ministers.

He said the committee reviewed economic relations between Egypt and India.

He said his official visit to Egypt gave him an opportunity to exchange views with President Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa on regional issues topped by the situation in the Middle East, southeast Asia and aspects of economic cooperation between Egypt and India in the various domains.

The Indian Foreign Minister said he discussed with Moussa India's view regarding enlargement of the Security Council and expanding cooperation between Egypt and India.

He said his talks with Moussa tackled globalization and its implications to developing countries and the importance of maintaining coordination between Egypt and India in the framework of the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM).

"I briefed President Mubarak and Amr Moussa on the developments of Indian Pakistani relations in the light of calls by India for halting violence and providing a climate for holding a constructive dialogue between India and Pakistan," the Indian Minister added.

He expressed the belief that President Bush Administration would follow the line of the previous administration with regard to the developments of the Kashmir crisis saying the Indian government is responsible for solving the problem of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said diplomatic relations with Israel comes in the framework of natural international relations indicating commercial relations between India and Israel are much less than commercial relations between Egypt and Israel.

He said President Mubarak is a prominent figure with international leverage. He added that cooperation between India and Israel is restricted to agricultural and technological cooperation.