British Foreign Secy Miliband to speak at Taj,Trident

Miliband will hold ministerial-level talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. He will also have a luncheon meeting with the National Security Advisory Board,besides meeting top political leaders,including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition L K Advani.

Sources said Miliband wants to make a statement that the UK stands by India on counter-terrorism and that business-as-usual is the key to defeat the motives of the terrorists by participating in the two Mumbai events.

Brown,during his whistle-stop tour of South Asia in mid-December,had publicly pronounced the most damning indictment of Pakistan. He had said in Islamabad on December 15,at a joint press conference with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that three-quarters of the most serious terrorist plots investigated by the British authorities have led to the al Qaeda in Pakistan. The time has come for action not words.

Talks between Miliband and the Indian leadership will revolve around cooperation on creating international pressure on Pakistan for tracking down the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror act and preventing further attacks in future.