Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not raise the issue of extradition of the former head of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, with U.S. President Barack Obama when the two meet in Toronto during the G-20 Summit on June 26-27. India has been seeking to get Mr. Anderson extradited for almost two decades now.
Briefing journalists as the Prime Minister departed for Toronto, a top government official said India had already raised the matter with the U.S. and Washington responded by making certain queries. These would be enquired into by the Central Bureau of Investigation and only when the information was available would the time be “right” for the two leaders to take up the issue of extradition, said the official.
Time to move forward
On the G-20 Summit, the official made it clear that the meeting would mainly be about making an attempt at finding a way to move forward from where things were now. The steps taken until now by the G-20 were the easy part. The hard part would come now, because the immediate crisis was over.
The official said forward movement would involve hard negotiations on policy coordination on the continuation or otherwise of the stimulus because global and national interests had begun to diverge. The next G-20 Summit in November in Seoul is when there might be some concrete action.India was in a good position, the official added, referring to its high growth rate and the sound health of its banks.
Nuclear reactors issue
On China supplying nuclear power reactors to Pakistan, he said it was up to the Nuclear Suppliers Group to take a view on the legality of Beijing's proposal. Pakistan is neither a signatory to the NPT, nor has reactors under full safeguards. India, he said, made clear its position that it did not approve of the proposal.
Tackling Maoists
To a question on the use of the Army against Maoists, the official said it would provide training and transport help to the State governments. It was the police who had to tackle the problem.
