New foreign policy for India, says Menon

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, April 10, 2007 : Much like what China has done in recent decades, that is ensure a peaceful neighbourhood so as to accelerate domestic growth, India is now coming around to the belief that a ``peaceful and prosperous periphery’’ is essential if it has to focus on socio-economic development.

Speaking at the Observer Research Foundation today, Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon, in a major speech, outlined three clusters of challenges facing India’s foreign policy today.

Significantly, he pointed out that ``the first area of focus for our foreign policy is naturally our neighbourhood, for unless we have a peaceful and prosperous periphery we will not be able to focus on our primary tasks of socio-economic development.’’

The second cluster of challenges revolved around India ably managing her relations with the major powers, while the third cluster was about ``future’’ challenges like water, food security, energy and climate change.

Menon pointed out that for the first time in years, India was not a factor in the political changes taking place in India’s neighbourhood. Whether it was Bhutan that was transforming itself into a constitutional monarchy or Bangladesh, which was currently led by an Army-backed government, all these countries, in fact looked at India’s assymetrical size and power as a potential market.

India fully supported the political process in Nepal, Menon said, while in Bangladesh, India was interested in a democratic, stable and prosperous neighbour. In Sri Lanka on the other hand, India remained concerted about the continuing violence and believed it was necessary to find a negotiated political settlement to the ethnic issue that is acceptable to all sides.

On Pakistan, India believed that any peaceful solution remained predicated on the fact that terrorism must end and that Pakistan could not allow its territory to be used to support any kind of terrorism.

The Foreign Secretary also pointed out that India needed to engage with the major powers so that it could create the space to develop and grow, and that an increasingly multivalent world was actually good for India.

He pointed out that the Indo-US relationship had been significantly transformed and that India hoped to arrive at an early agreement on the bilateral nuclear deal. Russia remained a very special partner, and even though some felt concerned about the ``peaceful rise of China,’’ the PM had said that ``there is enough space for both of us to grow.’’

ENDS