Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday said India believed in strengthening relations with its neighbours through talks.
The minister termed dialogue as a better option in improving ties with neighbouring countries. War is no solution.
“Persistent dialogue is definitely a better alternative through which we are trying to normalize ties with our neighbours,” the minister told a workshop on Public Diplomacy Initiative at the Doon University in Dehradun, Uttrakhand state, PTI reported.
Noting that India occupies the foremost position among developing countries, the minister said, “We should not just be looked upon as a developing nation because we can equal many developed countries in various fields.”
He said India owed its pre-eminent position among the developing countries to its foreign policy founded by former prime ministers Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi.
Khurshid said the three prominent figures displayed great foresight while framing the country’s foreign policy.
In the post-globalisation era the world has been in a state of constant flux and all the changes which are to take place in the years to come were foreseen by the country’s founding-fathers who framed a foreign policy bearing all that in mind, he said.
“It is because of a foreign policy like this that we enjoy better ties with our neighbours than many other nations of the world,” he said.
Public diplomacy initiative is aimed at creating awareness among the younger generation about the government’s foreign policy, Khurshid said.
The initiative would also help tailor the foreign policy to changing times as the national and international scenario has to be kept in mind while framing the foreign policy of a country, he said.
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, who also addressed the workshop, said Uttarakhand is strategically very crucial being a border state and the foreign policy should be framed keeping in mind its unique geographical situation and that of other Himalayan states.
