'India can help stabilize S Asia'

NEW DELHI: Coming from a country that was one of the first victims of Islamic terrorism, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is acutely aware of its destructive power. That's the reason, on his first visit to India in 25 years, Mubarak is calling for a greater role by India in ensuring that terror-wracked Pakistan and Afghanistan emerge as stable nation states.
"Indeed, the stability of these two nations is crucial for the security of India," Mubarak said in an exclusive interview to TOI, one of his rare one-to-one press interactions. "Innocent victims of terror are everywhere. In India, we lost the Gandhis, Indira and Rajiv. In Pakistan, we lost Benazir Bhutto. In Egypt, we lost Sadat just to mention a few examples," he said.
Mubarak, who is here on a three-day visit to receive the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, said there ought to be a renewed push in the global war against terror, this time under the rubric of the United Nations and not necessarily led by Washington. "We need a global concerted effort to win the fight against terrorism worldwide," he said.
And in this battle, Mubarak, who became president in 1981 after Anwar Sadat was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood at a Cairo parade, sees a large role for India. "Security in Asia, as in other regions, is made by the collective combined roles of its key players. When it comes to Asian security, India is certainly an important big figure in this equation," he said in the interview.
However, while seeing Pakistan and Aghanistan as the foci of terror, Mubarak warned against pretending there weren't other lurking dangers. "Suppose the Taliban join a peaceful national reconciliation process, we all hope they do, would that mean the end of violence and terrorism in Asia? What about the Tamils (LTTE) and others?" he asked.
Like India, Mubarak said Egypt too, as a large Arab nation, had aspirations for a permanent Security Council seat. But since the two were in different geographical regions, there was no competition, and Cairo would support India's bid. "However, I do not see it coming in the foreseeable future because of the well-known positions of the current P-5 (permanent) members," he said. The P-5 comprise US, Russia, France, Britain, and China.
Mubarak, who is accompanied by a 150-member delegation of officials and businessmen, said that in his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, he would seek to widen trade between the two countries. "Last year, our bilateral trade set a record; amounting to $3.5 bn, some 65% more than the volume of trade the year before," he said. Egypt accounts for 40% of India's trade with northern Africa.
He also said the two countries would fine tune their political stances and work together at the UN, WTO, UNCTAD, the Bretton Woods institutions and other multilateral fora. "The world has changed since Nasser and Nehru. However, our two countries still face the same challenges of globalization and shape their policies and priorities accordingly."