India on Thursday said the collapse of state structures in the neighbourhood has led to terrorism, extremism and radicalism, which are affecting economic growth in the country. “Large areas abutting India to the West have seen the collapse of state structures and the absence of governance or the writ of the state with the emergence of multiple centres of power,” Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said. The results, in the form of terrorism and radicalism, are felt by the people of India, he said.“We in India have directly suffered the consequences of the linkages and relationships between terrorist organisations, support structures and funding mechanisms, centred upon our immediate neighbourhood, and transcending national borders,” Menon said. “Any compromise with such forces, howsoever pragmatic or opportune it might appear momentarily, only encourages the forces responsible for terrorism,” he added.Menon, meanwhile, will leave for Iran on Saturday as part of the Foreign Office Consultations. The visit assumes significance as this is the first visit from the Indian side to Iran after the release of the US National Intelligence Estimate report on December 3, which said Tehran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003. At home, the Left allies of the Government have been making this (India’s vote against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency) a point to “prove India’s shift in its foreign policy in the wake of the Indo-US nuclear deal”.
