By IANS,
New Delhi : Outlining the thrust of India’s foreign policy in the first 100 days of government, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Wednesday said India had pursued “a multi-dimensional” policy of deepening ties with major global players and its neighbours without compromising on its autonomy of decision-making.
Krishna stressed India’s pursuit of a policy “that ensures a peaceful periphery and a supportive international environment” to spur high economic growth and create greater opportunities for Indian business and enterprise, specially in the area of knowledge industries.
“In its first hundred days, the external affairs ministry has pursued a multi-dimensional foreign policy of seeking strategic engagement, partnership and dialogue with all major global players, without creating any contradiction or hyphenation between one set of relations and another,” Krishna said in response to questions from journalists on the functioning of his ministry.
Underlining the growing salience of economic diplomacy in international relations, Krishna said the pursuit of enhanced trade, investment inflows, technology transfers, energy security and other economic imperatives had become an overarching imperative of India’s foreign policy under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“One of the main challenges of our foreign policy lies in creating and maintaining a regional and international environment which would enable us to sustain a high rate of economic growth, create more opportunities for Indian entrepreneurship and enable India to realise her vast, latent potential,” he said.
To realise high growth, Krishna said he had focused on effectively leveraging India’s established capabilities in the field of frontier technologies like space, information technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
Citing India’s commitment to the Non-Aligned Movement, Krishna emphasised India’s autonomy of decision-making and independence of thought and action in foreign policy.
Outlining India’s approach to its neighbours, the minister said India would like to have a peaceful neighbourhood “in which all South Asian nations can work in concert, to attain the common objective of growth and development, as well as combat challenges like terrorism”.
He reminded Pakistan of its anti-terror pledge and stressed that meaningful dialogue was possible only after Islamabad takes action against the Mumbai attacks and the larger anti-India terror infrastructure.
“Steps, therefore, to address the issue of terrorism will be in the interest of the bilateral relationship and also in the interest of Pakistan.”
Krishna also vigorously defended the end-user monitoring agreement, a defence pact that allows the US to monitor the uses of high-end military hardware sold to India.
There is nothing in the pact, signed during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India in July, that “compromises our strategic interests”, he said. The US has not been given any unilateral right of access to our military sites, he added.
In his first 100 days as external affairs minister, Krishna, who is currently in Brazil to attend the IBSA ministerial meeting, visited Bhutan and exchanged views with his counterparts from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal.
He participated in the Af-Pak ministerial meeting in the G8 plus outreach format in Italy. Besides, the minister held talks with his counterparts from the US, Russia, China and Japan. He singled out his visit to Australia for special mention, saying that it was aimed at seeking the understanding and support of the Australian authorities for stopping the violent attacks against Indian students.
He also participated in multilateral meets like the 15th NAM Ministerial at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, followed by the ASEAN-India and ARF Post-forum Ministerial in Phuket, Thailand.