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All-Party delegation leader and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday arrived in Brazil, where he will be holding meetings.
Tharoor said that the feedback to the delegation so far has been positive, especially after Colombian government retracted its statement condoling Pakistani terrorists' deaths after India expressed its disappointment. "Well, we are on a five-country visit. We've done three countries already, Guyana, Panama and Colombia. And we are now in Brazil, though Sunday, it's now 1am Sunday as we've landed, is actually a day of rest, which I think the team has earned up for a fairly hectic program since we left. We then have meetings in Brazil all day, and then we proceed to Washington, which will be the final leg of our visit," Tharoor said. "Feedback has been very positive in both Guyana and Panama, which are Security Council members, it was tremendous understanding and support for our mission and expressions of solidarity for our fight against terror," the Congress leader said. Tharoor recounted how the Colombian government later showed support after the delegation explained the events from the Indian side, i.e. the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent Operation Sindoor. "In Colombia, there had unfortunately been a statement issued during Operation Sindoor, which actually condoled the Pakistani victims rather than saying anything about India. So we had that rectified, we met with the government and I'm very pleased to say that they have withdrawn that statement and instead they have issued something very positive and supportive, both from the government and even more strongly from the parliament where we met both the equivalent of the Lok Sabha speaker and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Second Committee as they call it. So on the whole we've had some very good results," he said. Tharoor appreciated the efforts of all the members of his team, saying, "My team has been fully participating in everything. We are all equal participants in this venture." Tharoor said that Brazil is an important country of strategic importance being a part of BRICS. "And here in Brazil, we're looking forward to having some very solid, constructive discussions. Brazil is a major power in the region. It's a BRICS partner of ours. We've elevated our relationship to a strategic partnership going back to 2006. So it's a country that really matters to us. And though they're not currently on the Security Council, we felt keeping them fully abreast of our position and continuing to keep the dialogue channels open is very important," Tharoor said. (ANI)
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