E-Paper
New Delhi declaration
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, signed the New Delhi Declaration entitled India And United Kingdom: Partnership For A Better And Safer World reaffirming the strength and depth of the bilateral relationship between the two countries on January 6, 2002.
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, signed the New Delhi Declaration entitled India And United Kingdom: Partnership For A Better And Safer World reaffirming the strength and depth of the bilateral relationship between the two countries on January 6, 2002.
The text of the Declaration is as follows:
Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Tony Blair today reaffirm the deep partnership between India and U.K; and pledge to work together to identify and develop new areas of partnership between the two countries - to the benefit of our peoples, and to help create a better and safer world.
Partners for Peace and Security
Terrorism is an attack on the human rights and civil liberties of the citizens of the world. We condemn all acts of terrorism whatever the motivation. We reject the arguments of those who attempt to justify terrorism, which in all its forms must be condemned unambiguously and eradicated wherever it exists.
The terrorist attacks of 11th September, 1st October and 13th December were deliberate attempts to shatter the peace of our peoples and to undermine democratic values. The attack on the Indian Parliament was an attack on democracy worldwide. Those responsible for these crimes must be delivered to justice; they must never be allowed to threaten innocent lives in the future. We condemn all those who support terrorism: those that finance, train or provide support for terrorists share their guilt.
The UK and India both have long and painful histories of fighting terrorism on their own soil. We offer our shared experiences to the international efforts to eliminate terrorism. We welcome UNSCR 1373 and commit ourselves fully to implement this resolution. We call for the early agreement on, and entry into force of, the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
Since the events of 11th September, our ministerial-level collaboration has reached new levels. As Prime Ministers, we have had three substantive meetings in the past four months. Our Foreign and Defence Ministers have been in constant touch.
Today, we agree to enhance significantly our bilateral co-operation in counter-terrorism, including training, building on the work of the UK/India Joint Working Group on Terrorism.
Our two governments share a strong commitment to international peace and security. We emphasise the central importance of peaceful resolution of disputes and the critical role of sustained confidence-building in this process. The U.K continues to view India as a natural contender for permanent membership of the Security Council, and will work with India to achieve it.
We will continue to work together in support of United Nations' Peace-Keeping Operations. We welcome the work in hand to improve the effectiveness of UN peace-keeping operations, following the publication of the Brahimi Report in 2000. We look forward to further cooperation between the armed forces of our two countries.
We share a common perspective and concern about the threats to international peace and security, including from weapons of mass destruction and the risks of such weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. As responsible members of the international community we will also pool our efforts in working towards the objective of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
