British PM's frank talk creates stir

NEW DELHI - British Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed a plain-speaking streak during a tour of Turkey and India that raises questions over whether it is down to youthful inexperience or a bold new approach to diplomacy.

He caused anger in Israel by saying in Turkey that Gaza was a "prison camp", and went on to offend Islamabad when he suggested in front of an Indian audience in Bangalore that Pakistan "promoted the export of terror".

While in Ankara, he also dismissed opponents of Turkish membership of the European Union as "protectionist, polarised or prejudiced", an analysis which will not be shared in Paris or Berlin. France and Germany oppose Turkish entry.

"He doesn't shrink from giving sometimes tough messages, and he doesn't shrink from doing that to their faces, as well as wherever he is around the world," Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters on Thursday in New Delhi.

At 43, Cameron is the youngest British prime minister in nearly two centuries. He has been in office since May.

His comments on Pakistan delighted the Indian media, which devoted much of its coverage of his visit to the subject, to the detriment of his core message that he wanted to boost trade and business links between Britain and India.


Pakistan's high commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, called Cameron's comments "completely contrary to the realities on the ground."

"A bilateral visit (to India) aimed at attracting business could have been conducted without damaging the prospects of regional peace," he wrote in a column in Thursday's edition of the British newspaper The Guardian.

'A GREAT DIPLOMAT'

The Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, was equally unimpressed. "The people of Gaza are the prisoners of the terrorist organisation Hamas," he said in a sharp retort to Cameron's "prison camp""comment.

In a briefing with British journalists covering the tour, Hague came under a barrage of questions on whether Cameron might watch his words more carefully in future and whether his approach was compatible with the care required in diplomacy.

"The prime minister speaks the truth and we are all united and clear and happy about what he said," said Hague.

"The prime minister is a great diplomat and I see that in action every day when he's dealing with foreign leaders. He is a natural at it, so I don't think you need to be worried on that score," he said.

Cameron will get a direct response from Pakistan when he hosts President Asif Ali Zardari at his Chequers country residence in Britain next week.