Krishna calls Libyan Foreign Minister for help, seeks safe evacuation of Indians
March 1st, 2011 - 9:50 pm ICT by ANINew Delhi, Mar 1 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had a telephonic conversation with Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa on Tuesday and sought his help for the safe evacuation of Indian nationals from strife-torn Libya.
According to sources, Krishna has asked for assistance in the safe evacuation of Indian nationals stranded in Libya.
Earlier today, Krishna said the evacuation of Indians from strife-torn Libya is going smoothly and over 3,500 people would have returned home by Wednesday.
“The evacuation of Indians who are wanting to come back is going smoothly. And so far by tomorrow, I think 3500 persons would have been evacuated from Tripoli,” Krishna told reporters outside Parliament.
The External Affairs Minister said the Government was using commercial flights, chartered flights and shipping lines to evacuate stranded Indians.
“And we hope that we should be able to pursue this evacuation,” he added.
When asked about the movement of people spreading to other countries, Krishna said India was ‘closely watching’ the developments in such nations and will respond ‘depending upon how the situation develops’.
“Well…we are not going to speculate as to how this revolution, resentment, revolt is going to impact other countries,” said Krishna.
“But the External Affairs Ministry through our missions…. we are closely watching the situation…monitoring the situation…and depending upon how the situation develops…we respond,” he added.
Talking about the fate of Indians in a ship hijacked by Somalian pirates, Krishna said: “The External Affairs Ministry will certainly get in touch with our Navy and try to find a solution.”
He further said that the Indian Government is in touch with other countries, who are also affected by this menace and India will try to checkmate this menace with support from other countries.
“They are international menace and well I hope…they will not resort to any such drastic measures because that is going to be very harmful,” Krishna said.
“Let us hope that they will see the path of reason and sanity and will not harm those have been taken into captivity,” he added.
597 Indian nationals flew back home on two special Air India flights earlier this morning from Tripoli taking to 1,083 the total number of people evacuated so far by the four Air India special flights.
Arrangements have been finalized with Libya to receive three special flights daily from India at Tripoli over the next ten days. (ANI)
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- 3,500 Indians would be back from Libya by Wednesday: Krishna - Mar 01, 2011
- India to evacuate its citizens, condemns use of force in Libya - Feb 23, 2011
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- 67 more Indians return from Libya - Feb 28, 2011
- All Indians to be evacuated from Libya by March 10 - Mar 04, 2011
- 3 flights daily to bring Indians home from Libya (Lead) - Mar 01, 2011
- First batch of evacuees from Libya reaching Delhi midnight (Lead) - Feb 26, 2011
- All Indians to be evacuated from Libya by March 10 (Lead) - Mar 04, 2011
- Evacuation of Indians from Libya to be over today - Mar 10, 2011
- First batch of evacuees from Libya to reach India midnight - Feb 26, 2011
- Air India evacuates around 2,200 Indians - Mar 02, 2011
- IAF to fly Indians out of Libya - Mar 02, 2011
Tags: chartered flights, commercial flights, external affairs minister, external affairs ministry, fate, foreign minister, indian government, indian nationals, indians, krishna, kussa, libya, New Delhi, resentment, revolt, shipping lines, somalian pirates, strife, telephonic conversation, tripoli