Countries Advise Nationals to Leave India, Pakistan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 03, 2002

Countries Advise Nationals to Leave India, Pakistan

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Alarmed by escalating Indo-Pak tensions, a number of countries in the world have urged their nationals to leave India and Pakistan, while some Western countries decided to reduce non-residential diplomatic staff in India.

The first batch of 50 non-essential staff members including diplomats working in the embassy of the United States and their dependents left India for home on Saturday. The U.S. State Department on Friday decided to reduce the level of non-essential diplomatic staff and their families in India and advised its nationals against traveling to the region.

Meanwhile, U.N. sources said on Saturday that the United Nations would evacuate the families of its staff in Pakistan and India because of the tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

Britain on Friday advised its nationals to consider leaving India and said it was withdrawing its diplomatic staff from the South Asian country as the threat of war between India and Pakistan remained high.

However, the British Foreign Office has denied reports that British Airways is on standby to carry out an emergency airlift ofBritish citizens from India although the Foreign Office has warnedBritain's tourists to avoid all travel to India and Pakistan due to the "increased risk of conflict".

Families of diplomatic staff of the Canadian embassy in New Delhi have been told to leave India as the fear of war rises on the Indian subcontinent.

France reportedly urged its nationals apart from essential staff on Saturday to leave India due to its "growing tension" withPakistan.

Germany asked its nationals to leave the country but said the warning did not apply to diplomatic staff of its embassy in New Delhi.

Belgium on Saturday urged its nationals to "consider leaving" India and Pakistan amid fears of a war between the two countries.

Denmark, too, appealed to its nationals not to travel to India or Pakistan.

New Zealand also announced that it was pulling out all relatives of its diplomatic staff in India and advised its citizens not to travel to India and Pakistan and to leave if they were there by commercial means as quickly as they could, while Australia has made arrangements for evacuating its citizens in theevent of an Indo-Pak conflict but hopes that such a situation would not arise.

Japan's Foreign Ministry issued a travel advisory on Saturday urging people to postpone traveling to India due to growing tensions over disputed Kashmir between India and neighboring Pakistan.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has advised its nationals in Indiato leave the south Asian country due to fears that war could breakout between India and Pakistan.

The moves come amidst reports that Pakistan has moved its troops from its western border to the eastern frontiers, signalingfurther escalation of tension.

Russia described the situation in the region as "alarming", butsaid that there would be no plan to pull out its diplomats there. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is hoping to broker aface-to-face meeting between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

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