Excerpts from recent editorials from overseas newspapers:

The Hindu, Madras, India, on Pakistan’s claims of threats from Bush administration:Is it any surprise that the Bush administration issued crude threats to Pakistan immediately after 9/11? In his 368-page memoir, “In The Line of Fire”, which is being launched today, President Pervez Musharraf narrates how, on September 12, 2001, US Secretary of State Colin Powell had him virtually summoned to the telephone from an “important meeting” in Karachi and said, “You are either with us or against us,” which the General naturally construed as “a blatant ultimatum.” Then it got worse.

On September 13, the Director General of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) telephoned from Washington to say that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had warned him that “not only had we to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but if we chose the terrorists” meaning, chose not to ally with the United States in the coming war against the Taliban-Al Qaeda combine “we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age.” While President George Bush claims to have been “taken aback” by the story, the burly Mr. Armitage, who is no longer in public service, has disputed, not very convincingly, the language attributed to him but has basically confirmed the authenticity of General Musharraf’s revelation by admitting that he had delivered a “strong message.”

At that point, Islamabad seemed to believe, rather naively, that there was scope for negotiation to defuse the crisis and bale out a friendly, if not client, regime that had played host to the perpetrators of 9/11. Washington evidently had no compunctions about employing the language of force upfront, even if there might have been an element of bluff in it.

The Bush administration has made a habit of deploying bellicosity as its primary tool of international diplomacy and politics. When it encounters a country be it Iran or North Korea or Syria unwilling to do its bidding, its first reaction is to brandish the stick.

No lessons whatever seem to have been learnt from the catastrophic invasion and occupation of Iraq, or the steadily deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

The Saddam regime will find few apologists anywhere but anyone other than the ideologically purblind can see what follows when state structures are dismantled through an invasion. A country in which religious extremists were not tolerated earlier has now become a breeding ground for sectarian fanatics and terrorists. There will certainly be relief round the world if, in November 2006, the American people vote in a Congress that can restrain the President.Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, on Japan’s new government:Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the first Japanese prime minister born since the end of the Second World War, appointed his inaugural Cabinet on Tuesday after assuming power.

As a whole, the Cabinet appointments were the result of post-hunting by LDP lawmakers. Is it the best team that Abe could have formed? We worry whether the new Cabinet is capable of achieving the policies Abe wants to realise. ...

Abe has shown a willingness to meet with the Chinese leader, and a Japan-China summit meeting may be realised on the sideline of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Hanoi in November. However there is no sign the two leaders are planning to visit each other’s countries.

What soured diplomatic ties with China was Koizumi’s repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, and Abe has been vague about whether he will visit the shrine.

Abe has said he will seek to enhance relations with Australia and India which share similar values with Japan — such as liberty and democracy.

Implementing a broad strategic Asian diplomacy is a key task for the Abe government.