New Delhi, Dec 13 (IANS) Without naming Pakistan and Bangladesh, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon Thursday expressed concerns about the linkage between terrorist organisations and funding mechanisms in India’s immediate neighbourhood and called for more trans-national cooperation to combat global terrorism.
“We in India have directly suffered the consequences of the linkages and relationships among terrorist organizations, support structures and funding mechanisms, centred upon our immediate neighbourhood, and transcending national borders,” Menon told top diplomats and strategic experts while opening foreign policy dialogue with the influential International Institute of Strategic Studies.
The daylong dialogue was organised by the public diplomacy division of the external affairs ministry.
“Any compromise with such forces, howsoever pragmatic or opportune it might appear momentarily, only encourages the forces responsible for terrorism,” he said.
“Large areas abutting India to the west have seen the collapse of state structures and the absence of governance or the writ of the state, with the emergence of multiple centres of power,” he said.
“The results, in the form of terrorism, extremism and radicalism are felt by us in India,” he said while stressing that international terrorism remained “a major threat to peace and stability”.
Menon also underlined the changing strategic shape of the world and stressed that the central objective of the Indian foreign policy was to enable the transformation of India.
Alluding to the impact of globalisation on the world order, Menon batted vigorously for the creation of a multi-polar world “marked by the preponderance of several major powers, with minimal likelihood of direct conflict amongst these powers”.
“The result is a de-hyphenation of relationships with each other, of each major power engaging with all the others, in a situation that might perhaps be described as ‘general un-alignment’,” he said.
Menon underscored India’s emergence as a global force and its increasing integration into a rapidly globalising world.
“As a result of 25 years of six percent growth, and our reforms since 1991, India is today in a position to engage with the world in an unprecedented manner,” he said.
“Our engagement with the global economy is growing rapidly, with trade in goods and services now exceeding $330 billion. Our needs from the world have changed, as has our capability,” he said.
“India can do and consider things that we could not do or consider 20 years ago. This is reflected in how India perceives its own future, its ties with its neighbourhood and its approach to the larger international order,” he said.
Menon underscored the importance building “a peaceful periphery within which India’s transformation can take place”.
He also underlined the need for enhancing India’s energy security and tackling the problems of climate change while reiterating India’s position that the major responsibility for the accumulation of green house gasses in the atmosphere lies with the developed countries.
“When we speak of ‘shared responsibility’, it must include the international community’s shared responsibility to ensure the right to development of the developing countries. Development is the best form of adaptation to climate change,” he said.