PAKISTAN MUST STOP TERROR ATTACKS FROM ITS SOIL---FRANCE

PAKISTAN MUST STOP TERROR ATTACKS

 FROM ITS SOIL

Reflecting growing international frustration over Pakistan, France on Friday, 21st, October, 2011, mounted pressure asking it to stop terror attacks from its soil. “On terrorism, we (France and India) are in total agreement. The threat is still present.... We will therefore strengthen cooperation and we urge Pakistan to do everything in its power to prevent terrorists from launching strikes from its territory,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

Terrorism was not a fight of one civilisation against the other, he said. “It is a fight of one civilisation against barbarity,” he said in a speech at the French Embassy here. Mr. Juppe’s remarks come in the wake of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’ blunt message to Pakistan that it cannot keep “snakes” in its backyard and expect them only to bite its neighbours.

Making a strong pitch for U.N. reforms, Mr. Juppe backed India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council as part of the G-4 initiative. Admitting that there were differences in the way the West, Russia and the developing countries approach a global issue, he said it would be a “political and strategic error” to continue with the old system of five permanent members of the UNSC. “When the world changes, institutions must change. France proposes the enlargement of the U.N. Security Council, which no more represents the reality of the world of the 21st century,” Mr. Juppe said.

                                                                                 Prof. John Kurakar