Phuket (Thailand): Without naming Pakistan, India's Minister for External Affairs S M Krishna on Thursday drew the attention of Asian countries to "India's terror-infested neighbourhood" and called for quicker intelligence sharing and effective cooperation to combat the network of terrorists in the region.
"Without naming Pakistan, I spoke about the Mumbai terror attacks. We talked about our terror-infested neighbourhood," Krishna told reporters when asked whether he highlighted Pakistan's alleged complicity in the Mumbai attacks and other incidents of terrorism in India at the 16th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meet.
Krishna said he placed the issue of terrorism upfront and spoke about the Mumbai attacks at the retreat of 27 foreign ministers of the ARF, Asia's top security gathering, that concluded in the Thai island resort on Thursday.
With the recent bombings in Jakarta as a backdrop, the ARF focussed on expanding intra-regional cooperation in combating terrorism.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were among those who participated in the meeting.
Krishna and Qureshi exchanged greetings at the dinner for ARF ministers Wednesday, but there were no bilateral talks on the sidelines.
Krishna said that he was likely to meet Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
"India, being another victim of terror, made a broad appeal that since terror knows no boundaries and terror has become more sophisticated there has to be an effective response," Krishna said.
"Terrorists have an effective network among themselves. Therefore, there has to be more effective response," he underlined.
"There has to be greater cooperation in terms of intelligence sharing. We have to fight terror in an effective way."
Krishna made a strong pitch for sharpening response to terror by ASEAN and East Asian nations both individually and collectively.
"We have to sharpen our response apparatus, focus it and when intelligence is available it should be immediately shared so that any attack is prevented and thwarted," Krishna said.
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