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Address by EAM at the Editors Guild meeting
10/09/2009
President of Editors Guild of India Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai,
Secretary General Mr. Sachidananda Murthy,
Friends,
It is indeed a pleasure for me to be here to interact with members of
the prestigious Editors Guild of India. I would like to thank you for
the cordial invitation and for affording me this platform, for sharing
my views and getting your perspectives.
I deem it a privilege to have been called upon to navigate the course of
India’s foreign policy at this important juncture, when the stock of
India is steadily rising. India is an emerging power, regarded as a
responsible and mature global player. In the last three months that I
have been at the helm of affairs, I have been struck by the genuine and
universal respect that India enjoys for her democratic credentials,
economic growth, constructive role in international affairs and vision
of a just and non-discriminatory world order. There are also certain
expectations from us, due to our size, geographical location and
principled position on international issues.
Indian foreign policy establishment today is called upon to move
simultaneously on various fronts, be it our engagement with our extended
neighbourhood, major powers and vital regions, or safeguarding of our
interests on global issues like terrorism, energy and food security, UN
reforms, climate change and a fair and equitable WTO framework.
The direction of India’s foreign policy flows directly from the
aspirations of our people. Our main objective is ensuring a conducive
international environment for consolidating our strategic autonomy and
furthering our economic interests, such as sustainable double digit rate
of growth, enhanced trade and investment inflows, technology transfers
and energy security. That is the objective that the Ministry of External
Affairs is striving to work towards.
Let me elaborate and touch upon some of the important facets of our
relations, opportunities and challenges. In our immediate neighbourhood,
I have already visited Bhutan and exchanged views with my counterparts
from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Maldives. I
also participated in the Af-Pak Ministerial meeting in the G8 plus
outreach format. It is only when all South Asian nations work together,
in concert, that we can attain our common objective of growth and
development. Our destinies are interlinked.
It is in our vital interest to normalize our relations with Pakistan.
However, we are at a stage where it is for Pakistan to determine the
kind of relationship it wants to have with India. Any meaningful
dialogue with Pakistan can only be based on fulfillment of its
commitment, in letter and spirit, not to allow its territory to be used
in any manner for terrorist activities against India. The Mumbai attack
was launched from Pakistan and the conspiracy behind the attack was
hatched there. Clearly the onus is on Pakistan to unveil the conspiracy.
We have sought to assist them in that task by providing vital evidence.
Let me emphasize that it is our considered position that there should be
concrete action against those guilty of the Mumbai terrorist attack
before there can be any meaningful dialogue with Pakistan. Until the
Mumbai attack, India was conducting the composite dialogue with utmost
sincerity. But we cannot have terrorism and negotiations at the same
time. Pakistan has to prove its credentials by implementing its
assurances.
With respect to Sri Lanka, our immediate focus is to see that the
process of resettlement and rehabilitation of more than 2.7 lakh IDPs in
their original homes is achieved as early as possible. We are in
constant dialogue with the Sri Lankan Government on the issue. On its
part, India has allocated Rs. 500 crores for relief and rehabilitation
of IDPs. We are also actively assisting Sri Lanka in de-mining, which is
an essential pre-requisite for people to return to their homes.
Recognizing the importance of restoring livelihoods, we are also going
to assist Sri Lanka to revive agriculture in the North. A delegation led
by ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) will visit Sri Lanka
next week, to have extensive discussions with stakeholders in Sri Lanka
on the specifics of our agricultural assistance.
In Bangladesh, we welcome the return to multiparty democratic politics.
After their elections earlier this year, both sides have an historic
opportunity to take our relations to greater heights. India remains
committed to strengthening all round cooperation and connectivity. We
have taken several initiatives to give momentum to our ties, including
during the visit of Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni, which concluded
today. You may have already seen the Joint Press Statement issued today.
We now look forward to the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the
near future.
Our other key neighbour Nepal is currently undergoing a democratic
transition. A peace process is underway. The Prime Minister of Nepal
visited India recently. He stressed that bringing the peace process in
Nepal to a positive and meaningful conclusion, writing a new
Constitution within the stipulated time-frame and accelerating the pace
of economic development, were the main priorities of his Government. We
support the peace process, and stand ready to assist them in any manner
they want us to, including developmental assistance. Our economic
assistance to Nepal last year was over Rs. 128 crores.
We welcomed the process of holding of presidential and provincial
elections in Afghanistan on August 20. We will respect the choice of the
Afghan people. In general, we are gratified at the progress made in
Afghanistan in recent years, and are confident that our historical links
with the people of Afghanistan will only get better. With a bilateral
commitment of US$ 1.2 billion, India has been assisting Afghanistan in
building a stable, democratic and pluralistic society. We have decided
to establish an India-Afghanistan Partnership Council aimed at all-round
capacity development.
As regards the internal situation in Afghanistan, we are concerned at
the deterioration in the internal security situation. The resurgence of
Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is a threat to the progress made
since 2002. It is all the more important for the international community
to resolutely counter this threat by maintaining its commitment and
extending unwavering support to the Government of Afghanistan with
humanitarian and reconstruction assistance.
Let me now turn to China, our northern neighbour. Friendly cooperation
with China is a key foreign policy priority. I met my Chinese
counterpart recently in Phuket. We have a significant trade-economic
relationship with China. We consult each other on global issues and have
a similarity of outlook. We also have our differences, especially on the
boundary question. Both sides are working towards a fair and reasonable
settlement of the entire boundary, as per agreed guidelines. The 13th
Round of Special Representatives (SR) talks concluded last month.
On the issue of border incursions, I would like to emphasize that there
is an established mechanism to deal with such situations. Both sides
have agreed that pending the resolution of the border issue, peace and
tranquility must be maintained on the LAC. Moreover, India is monitoring
the situation constantly and there can and will be no lowering of our
defences in this regard. Our borders are secure and it serves no purpose
to create excessive alarm.
We have a strong interest in crafting closer ties with fellow Asian
countries. At the recent ASEAN-India and ARF Post-forum Ministerial in
Phuket, our Look-East policy received further impetus. After six years
of intensive negotiations, the ASEAN-India Agreement on Trade In Goods
was signed last month. It will give India a much larger business access
to the ASEAN market. Our annual trade with ASEAN is expected to increase
from US$ 40bn to US$ 60bn. Similar Free Trade Agreements for trade in
Services and Investments are to follow. For our country as a whole, the
FTA would benefit us, though it may entail some hardship for certain
areas. A negative list has been drawn up to protect some commodities and
lighten the burden.
We similarly attach a lot of significance to our ties with Japan, South
Korea and Australia. Our relationship with Japan has entered a new phase
in the last few years. There is now a new government in Japan led by the
DPJ. I had met their leaders recently in Tokyo, and we will engage them
formally and bilaterally very soon.
The seriousness of the issue of safety and security of our students in
Australia was brought home to the Australian leadership during my visit
to Australia last month. This has resulted in a visible improvement in
the situation and accelerated the review of unscrupulous institutions.
Our relations otherwise with them are in good shape and are expanding
rapidly.
As I said earlier, we have been simultaneously paying great attention to
our relations with major powers. Our relationship with Russia is
time-tested. Our wide-ranging cooperation in strategic areas, such as
defence, nuclear energy and space, forms the solid bedrock of our
relationship. Rashtrapati ji has just returned from a very successful
state visit to Russia and Tajikistan. I will be traveling to Moscow next
month for the next India-Russia Joint Commission, and meetings with the
Russian leadership.
With USA we have a robust and multifaceted agenda of cooperation.
Secretary Clinton, during her July visit, called the present phase of
the relationship as 3.0 (third phase) and hoped that the strengthening
of Indo-US partnership would be one of the signature accomplishments of
both the governments. We would like to build upon the meaningful work
done in the previous years and are pleased at the bipartisan support
that the relationship enjoys in USA. The civil nuclear cooperation
agreement is progressing well. We are presently discussing a regulatory
framework for commercially operationalizing the agreement. We have also
reached an agreement on a standard text for end-use monitoring (EUM),
which paves the way for sale and/or transfer of defence articles and
services by US companies to India. Let me stress here that the EUM
agreement does not compromise our sovereignty - there is no automatic
access to Indian military sites. PM’s visit to USA on November 24 would
be the first State visit by a foreign leader in the Obama
Administration.
Moving on, I would like to note that we have vital interests in West
Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. A new South-South partnership is
being built in the IBSA framework with South Africa and Brazil, a
country that I recently visited. West Asia is critical to our energy
security and economic well being. The sheer volume of remittances coming
from the region and our increasing trade with the countries of West Asia
should make this obvious. Naturally we have an interest in the stability
of the Gulf and the peaceful resolution of the Iranian question. With
Africa we have enjoyed close ties, which we would like strengthened
through a mutually beneficial partnership. The Namibian President’s
visit last month was the first incoming State visit after the UPA
government returned to power.
I thought of surveying the state of play of our relations with some of
our key partners. Let me pause here. I will be happy to take questions.
I would also welcome your thoughts and suggestions.
Thank you.
New Delhi
September 10, 2009
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