India, Laos, Cambodia unanimous in their fight against terror, drug trafficking: Patil

On board Air India One, Sep.18 (ANI): President Pratibha Patil said on Saturday that India, Laos, and Cambodia are unanimous in their perception that there is need to combat terrorism, organized crime, and drug trafficking in South East Asia.

During interaction with reporters on board Air India, when President Patil was asked about her discussions with leadership of the two countries over terrorism and extremism, she said: "We already have the agreement with these countries and there is unanimity in the feeling that we must combat terrorism, the organized crime and trafficking of drugs. The mutual cooperation is there."

Responding to another question earlier, the President said: "We don't compare us with others. We want to maintain our relations with all countries and want to increase engagements with other countries. So, our policies are like that both the countries can form relations with each other, mutual trust can increase, friendship will increase, cooperation in economic field will increase and diplomatic relation will increase. That is why what we saw in these countries is, they received it very well, so we want this with all nations that this mutual ties should increase."

President Patil visited Laos and Cambodia at the invitation of President Choummaly Sayasone of Laos and Norodom Sihamoni, the King of Cambodia.

Her visit to these countries was undertaken to reinforce the deep historical and cultural ties which India has with these countries dating back to more than 2000 years, and to build a dynamic economic and developmental partnership on these foundations.

The last visit of an Indian President to Laos and Cambodia was that of first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad in March, 1959. By Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)