India offers another US$20m to Pakistan

[Vehl]

Source: channelnewsasia

NEW DELHI: India Tuesday offered another US$20 million in flood aid to Pakistan, the country's foreign minister said, boosting efforts to build goodwill between the estranged neighbors.

S.M. Krishna told parliament a fresh installment of 20 million dollars will boost India's total aid contributions for Pakistan to 25 million dollars.

"As a more concrete assessment of the damage inflicted by this natural disaster and the urgent needs of the people of Pakistan emerges, government has decided to increase its assistance to Pakistan from five million dollars," he said.

Earlier this month, Islamabad described the initial offer as a "very welcome initiative" by India as the two countries look to get a stalled peace process back on track.

Read more: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1078198/1/.html

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I'm glad India is doing this, maybe it should also offer medical assistance, provided Pakistan is willing to accept.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R!

:kick:

[Vehl]

2. related news ....Pakistan says it's not aware of India's $20M offer for flood relief ????

Pakistan says it's not aware of India's $20M offer for flood relief

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- India offered another $20 million in aid to its neighbor and rival Pakistan on Tuesday, but an official in the flood-ravaged country said he has no knowledge of the aid.

Abdul Basit, spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, said Tuesday he is not aware of such an offer by India.

Basit said India was formally notified that Pakistan would accept an earlier offer of $5 million through the United Nations -- but not directly from India.

He said Pakistan did not accept the aid directly from India because "that is our government's policy." However, Basit said, Pakistan has received aid directly from other countries.



http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/31/pakistan.india.flood.aid/index.html

:(
Pakistan is willing to accept aid directly from other countries....but apparently not from India..because "that's the government policy" .Even during this catastrophic natural calamity, its apparent that bureaucrats are more concerned about "image" than the well-being of the affected people.

[sabrina 1]

7. I could not find anything on the latest offer from India, but I did

find this from about ten days ago:

Pakistan accepts India’s offer, appeals for more aid

Foreign Minister Qureshi told India's NDTV television in an interview broadcast Friday that Islamabad would take India's offer of five million dollars which was made last Friday.

“I can share with you that the government of Pakistan has agreed to accept the Indian offer,” Qureshi said from New York, where he addressed a special session of the UN General Assembly called to boost aid for flood victims.

“I think this initiative of India is a very welcome initiative.”

India and Pakistan have made major efforts in recent months to build confidence in their relations, which were badly strained by the Mumbai 2008 terror attacks, which Indian blamed on militants from Pakistan.

The United States urged Pakistan earlier this week to accept the Indian offer and not let rivalry stand in the way of helping its citizens in flood-ravaged regions.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rang his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday “to express his sense of sorrow and to condole the deaths resulting from the huge floods,” Singh's office said

The person mentioned in your link is a 'spokesperson' for the foreign ministry. But there is nothing in the words of the Foreign Minister himself to say that there were any conditions for the acceptance of the money.

It is possible that they asked the UN to manage the money as they are most likely sensitive to being accused of using the money, as the previous administration did, for the military eg.

But these words from the Minister seem to indicate that Pakistan is very grateful for the offer of help. Sometimes spokespersons say things they should not, hopefully that is what happened.

[Vehl]

10. I believe there was a similar fracas over the earlier 5 million aid

The info you posted seem to be about that incident, which happened a few weeks ago. if i rem correctly Pakistan accepted that offer after some initial resistance.


The Cnn link seems to refer to the current offer though.My surprise was more about their insistence that India route its aid through the UN while allowing other countries to give aid directly.


But yes, as you said..some of these spokespersons actually say stuff which might not reflect the official stance on this issue. I'm sure they will resolve this misunderstanding soon.

[SpeechlessDem]

3. Horrible!

20M people starving isn't as bad as accepting money from their immediate neighbour which they were once part of.

Unbelievable!

It's only Pakistanis that suffer from this decision and then they say "give us Kashmir"????

[cosmicone]

4. This is nothing ....

India offered to send police officers, doctors & medics and other relief workers with food, water and medicines directly to the affected areas.

Some of those areas are only 200-300 miles from the Indian border and logistically the quickest way to provide help to those people.

Pakistan played games with the offer ... only because they don't want their citizens to know that Pakistan has been a dismal failure as compared to India.

The floods have also been a problem on the Indian side but one doesn't see so much chaos and devastation in India.

[JDPriestly]

5. This is a great gesture. India has its own problems.

How wonderful. If we have peace between Pakistan and India, we may be able to leave Afghanistan. Great news!

[sabrina 1]

6. Thank you for posting that. It is really encouraging to know

India can set aside other considerations in the face of this terrible disaster. Good for them!

:kick:& R

[dipsydoodle]

8. Excellent

Thanks for posting.

:thumbsup:

[golfguru]

9. WOW India has transformed from a foreign aid recipient to giver!

Since independence in 1947, India has received millions of dollars
in foreign aid, primarily from USA.

Now India is flourishing as world's most populous democracy with
capitalistic structure.

Being close to Pakistan, India can help a lot more with personnel
help, not just monetary help. Pakistan should put aside their ego
or whatever reservations they have in accepting aid from India.