A hint to Gen: ‘we’ll tighten pursestrings’

It is learnt that economic aid as an instrument of diplomacy was also discussed between Straw and the Indian leadership, but so far there seems no final word on it. ‘‘It’s only a blip on the radar screen,’’ sources said, pointing out that the Western world had to decide for itself since the stakes for the US in this game were particularly high.

At a press conference this afternoon, Straw, who arrived here last night from Islamabad, said: ‘‘The definition of terrorism has been laid down in international law and UN Security Council resolution 1373 which includes cross-border terrorism and terrorism labelled as ‘freedom fight’ or ‘freedom fighter-terrorism.’’’

Announcing Britain’s ‘‘four square stand’’ behind India’s fight against terrorism, Straw made all the right noises in meetings today with Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Home minister L K Advani.

‘‘The test is by action and not words. The internationnal community looks to Musharraf for full implementation of the promises made by him,’’ Straw said.

Stating that it was India’s prerogative to verify Musharraf’s claims of stopping terrorism as well as dismantling the infrastructure of terrorist camps in Pakistani territory, even if the latter may take some time to do, Straw, nevertheless, couldn’t resist asking Delhi the big question: When will India demobilise? Still, he seemed satisfied when he was told by his interlocutors that Delhi’s ‘‘appropriate response’’ would follow only after Pakistan took action on the ground.

Meanwhile, the possibility that the international community could use economic aid as a lever to persuade Musharraf to deliver on his claims came yesterday from a Japanese foreign office statement. Criticising Islamabad for conducting its several missile tests in defiance of the world’s advice for restraint as well as appreciating India’s ‘‘endurance’’ in the current situation, Japan said it would take another look at the aid was revived after September 11.

And even as Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura arrived in New Delhi tonight after visiting Islamabad, the spokesman in Tokyo had said that ‘‘The sanctions that we imposed in 1998 on India as well as on Pakistan have been discontinued—they are not yet officially lifted…we find it quite regrettable that Pakistan has carried out the missile launch test. At this time we are not looking at our policy towards Pakistan, but we would like to see how our policy over Kashmir develops.’’

Analysts pointed out that Japan’s suprisingly forthright statement on the possible use of economic aid as a lever to persuade Pakistan to deliver had to have been made as a coordinated response with its major allies, the US and Britian.

That it was not a coincidence that Suguira was arriving in Delhi and Islamabad on the day Jack Straw left these capitals, and that US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage was arriving here barely a week later. Clearly, too, the gamut of strategies—military, economic and political—to get Musharraf to deliver is being exhaustively discussed between Delhi and world. The US knows well, analysts said, that if India does go to war against Pakistan, its own war against Al-Qaeda and search for bin laden is well nigh over. Signficantly, US strategic analysts like Steve Cohen have argued that aid may be used to persuade Musharraf to back off from cross-border terror.