World | India
Bashar vows Damascus support for Delhi's UN Council seat bid
Syrian leader urges resolution of kashmir issue with pakistan
- IANS
- Published: 00:08 June 20, 2008
- Chief of India's ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi (left) meets Syrian President Bashar Al Assad (centre) and his wife Asma in New Delhi on Thursday. Bashar is on a five-day state visit to India.
- Image Credit: Reuters
New Delhi: Syrian President Bashar Al Assad on Thursday extended full support to India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC).
Syria, which is now in the chair of the Arab League, strongly supports New Delhi's candidature for a permanent seat at the UNSC, President Bashar told reporters during an hour-long interactive session at the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi. He is on a five-day state visit to India.
"I have already told President Pratibha Patil last night about Syria's support to India's candidature for a permanent seat in the UNSC," the Syrian president said.
President Bashar, who arrived on Tuesday, had wide-ranging discussions with the Indian leadership in the past two days, including Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
His father, late Syrian president Hafez Al Assad had come to India on a bilateral visit in 1978.
"This visit of mine was long overdue and I am glad to be here. India has traditionally been supportive of the Arab cause," he said.
But he acknowledged that it was a "new, rising India" that he was dealing with and the engagement was taking place when "dramatic changes" over Palestine and Lebanon were taking place in the Middle East.
He said he had meaningful discussion with the prime minister and other Indian leaders on how the two sides could take forward their relations both in the political as well as in the economic field.
The Syrian president was supportive of direct negotiation between India and Pakistan and repeated his country's stand on Kashmir saying it was "a bilateral issue".
Pointing out that trade between the two sides was only $500 million (Dh1.83 billion), he said it was not reflective of the strong ties between the two sides. "We have to see how we can push this forward." He invited Indian companies to set up joint ventures with Syrian enterprises in the field of information technology, electricity and oil.
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