Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) Pitching strongly for a permanent seat for New Delhi in the UN Security Council, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe Friday sought to scale up counter-terror cooperation with India and urged Pakistan to control terrorists operating from its territory.

“France supports the enlargement of the UN Security Council. In particular, we are in favour of giving a permanent seat to India,” Juppe, on a three-day visit to India, said in a speech on bilateral relations.

“We therefore endorse the G4 initiative, which includes India,” he said.

In his overarching vision of India-France relations, he identified “three pillars” of strategic partnership: combating terrorism, civil nuclear cooperation and defence relations.

“On terrorism, we are in profound agreement. The threat is still present. The recent attack in your capital is evidence of that,” said Juppe. “We will, therefore, strengthen our cooperation.”

He added: “We urge Pakistan to do everything in its power to prevent terrorists from launching strikes from its territory.”

The situation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region figured prominently in discussions between Juppe and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Thursday.

Describing the situation in Afghanistan as “still dangerous”, Juppe alluded to suspected cross-border links of extremists in that country.

“We all know that the Taliban are still receiving unacceptable assistance and support from outside of Afghanistan,” he said in a veiled reference to Pakistan.

“This is why France is determined to continue to help the Afghan people in the long run. As India has already done so, we are negotiating a friendship and cooperation agreement with Afghanistan,” he said.