CDS calls for post 9/11 US approach against terror
RAISINA DIALOGUE Rawat says important to prevent states from using terror as proxy war
NEWDELHI: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Thursday said that he supported a negotiated peace deal between the US and Taliban in Afghanistan.
Gen Rawat was speaking along with other world leaders at the Raisina Dialogue organised by India’s influential think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
Arguing that terrorism was going to stay in the world as long as states were going to use it against other states, he said it was important to prevent states f r o m usi ng t e r r o r i s m a s a “proxy war”.
“The only way to deal with it was what the US did post 9/11,” he said, adding that the war against terror was necessary.
However, now a peace deal with Taliban is required, Gen. Rawat said.
“It must be a negotiated peace deal so that the Taliban stops using terrorism,” he added. Hinting that the US should mai n t a i n its presence i n Afghanistan, the CDS said that though Afghan security forces are now equipped to fight back terror groups in Afghanistan but they still need support.
The newly appointed CDS officially confirmed that India has shifted its stance on Taliban.
India has traditionally been opposed to the Pakistan-backed Taliban in Afghanistan.
Thousands of Afghans were given refuge in India when they fled the country due to oppression and terrorism of the Taliban regime. India is in alignment with the democratically elected government in Kabul that the Taliban remains supported by Pakistan.
Gen Bipin Rawat pitched for strong global action against states sponsoring terrorism, saying there is a need to take the bull by its horns and strike at the root cause.
Gen Rawat also said there is a need to take a hardline approach in dealing with terrorism, the way the US went after terror groups after the 9/11 terror attacks.
“As long as there are states which sponsor terrorism, we wi l l h a v e t o l i v e wi t h t h e menace. We need to take the bull by its horns and strike at the r o o t c a us e , ” he s a i d i n a n oblique reference to Pakistan.
“If we think war on terrorism is going to end, we are wrong,” Gen Rawat said.
He said the countries which are sponsoring terrorism cannot b e p a r t o f g l o b a l f i g ht against terror networks.
“You cannot have partners who are partnering gl obal war on terrorism and yet sponsoring terrorism... There has to be diplomatic isolation of those sponsoring terrorism. Any country which is sponsoring terrorism has to be taken to task,” he said.
On containing radicalisation, the Chief of Defence Staff said it can be checked if right persons are targeted, adding there was a need to confront the “ideology of radicalisation”.
Asked whether he supports negotiations with the Taliban, he said peace talks should be initiated with everybody provided they give up the “weapon of terrorism”.