Speeches / Statements

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