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Cook sees India as major emerging power

NEW DELHI: British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook arrived in India on Saturday for talks aimed at deepening political ties and accelerating economic cooperation with an emerging "big player on the international stage".

Cook, on his first return to New Delhi since he was accused of igniting a row with India over Kashmir three years ago, said he would discuss security issues including India's nuclear testing with his Indian counterpart Jaswant Singh.

But he declined to give details of his talks on Sunday and Monday and stressed instead what he said was a flourishing commercial relationship between two nations whose two-way trade reached 4 billion pounds ($6.36 billion) last year.

Cook was to inaugurate a Britain-India "round table" of opinion formers, open a British-sponsored privatisation seminar and visit an Internet joint venture during his three-day visit.

"The first focus is to demonstrate the strong and deepening ties between our two countries, the step change in political dialogue and the accelerating and very welcome economic and trade links," Cook told Reuters on his flight from London.

"The second...is the recognition that India is going to be a 21st century power. Economically it is going to be in the (world's) top 10 economies, politically it is going to be increasingly a big player on the international stage," he said.

STORM OVER KASHMIR

British officials say that Cook, who will travel to Jodhpur on Sunday for private talks with Jaswant Singh, has built up a close relationship with Singh that could help overcome recent troubles.

Three years ago Cook found himself at the centre of a storm over the disputed territory of Kashmir when Pakistani officials quoted him as saying that Britain was willing to mediate in their dispute with Pakistan's arch-rival India.

India's then prime minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, was reported to have responded by calling Britain a "third rate power". The row overshadowed a visit by Queen Elizabeth marking India and Pakistan's 50th anniversary of independence.

Relations were further tested when India detonated nuclear devices in May 1998.

His week-long Asian tour, which will also take him to Thailand and Nepal, does not include a stopover in Pakistan. Cook strongly criticised October's coup in Islamabad by General Pervez Musharraf and has called for an early restoration of democracy there.-Reuters