NEW DELHI
May 23: Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna, 77, a Fulbright scholar educated in George Washington and Southern Methodist universities in the United States, made a careful start as India’s new minister of external affairs. In his first interaction with media here on Saturday, Mr Krishna said he was taking over at a time when the world situation was rapidly changing; accordingly, India will seek to strengthen her policy and developmental "options" by consolidating strategic partnerships with major powers such as the US, Russia, China, Japan and the European Union.
Mr Krishna cautioned that there were opportunities and difficulties alike in pursuing an independent foreign policy and strengthening India’s strategic autonomy. But he added optimistically: "I look forward to these challenging [tasks] in the pursuit of India’s non-aligned foreign policy," hinting that South Block would return to basics in its quest for further advancing India’s interest in the international arena.
He also said a peaceful neighbourhood and a supportive international environment were crucial to the government’s objective of sustaining nine to 10 per cent economic growth, and he would accord highest priority to strengthen India’s ties with her neighbours. "[I] look forward to visiting them soon," he added.
Commodore Uday Bhaskar (Retd), a former deputy director of the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, was "intrigued" by Mr Krishna’s reference to "non-aligned" foreign policy. He thought the India of post-September 2008 (when Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted its embargo on nuclear commerce) had acquired a new profile, and therefore she ought to exhibit a different level of confidence. Ambassador Rajiv Sikri (Retd), in turn, said the minister’s remarks were a good starting point given the previous UPA government’s preoccupation with the India — US nuclear deal. He would not fault the minister for not laying special emphasis on ties with the US, or for invoking strategic autonomy and independence of foreign policy, and hoped that the government had done a "rethink on whether many of the assumptions it made in the past continued to remain valid or not".
Mr Krishna rounded off his media interaction by iterating India’s consistent policy towards Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Sri Lanka should opt for an effective political solution of the ethnic conflict. To Pakistan, he said India stood ready to extend "a hand of partnership" provided it takes determined and credible action to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism operating from Pakistani territory.
For his part, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi kept up his hopes of resuming the composite dialogue process with India. "I think and hope the new Indian government would restart the process of composite dialogue and we are ready to go ahead positively", Pakistani news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported on Saturday. India has ruled out talks with Pakistan unless it brought the 26/11 terrorists to justice.
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