India's Reaction to Chechen Referendum

India sees the Chechen referendum as "an important stage of the restoration within the democratic framework and the normalisation, rehabilitation and economic reconstruction of the Russian Federation's Chechen Republic," the Indian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Navtej Sarna said on Tuesday.

The Indian Government took note of the high turnout during the March 23 referendum on the Chechen constitution and the legislation of the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Sarna stated that since 1999 Russia had been making consistent efforts to combat terrorism, fundamentalism and extremism in Chechnya encouraged by organisations linked to international terrorism.