Rao says talks with Pakistan sincere attempt to initiate dialogue

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao today said the February 25 talks with her Pakistani counterpart in New Delhi was another "sincere attempt" by India to initiate dialogue with Pakistan and hoped the two countries could build, in a graduated manner, better communication and a serious and responsive dialogue to address issues of concern to them.

"Our relationship with Pakistan is complex," she said in an address on "Perspectives on Foreign Policy for a 21st Century India" at the 3rd MEA-IISS Seminar in London.

She said India had, out of its desire for peaceful and good-neighbourly relations with Pakistan, repeatedly taken initiatives in the past two improve the relationship.

"You are aware that the dark forces of terrorism sought to erase the good that stemmed from such well-intentioned initiatives. We are now making another attempt of dialogue with Pakistan. However, calls of jihad, hostility and aggression continue to be made openly against India," she said.

Ms Rao said this reflected the real and tangible difficulties that India faced in dealing with Pakistan.

"If the process of normalization that we desire with Pakistan, is to be sustained and taken forward, effective action against such groups by the Government of Pakistan is an absolute must," she said.

She said Pakistan had, under pressure and faced with the threat of terrorism in its own country, had initiated some steps to fight this scourge.

But she said these steps were selective and that distinctions between the Taliban, al Qaeda and terrorist outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba were now meaningless, since they were now in effect fused both operationally and ideologically.

"We have consistently maintained that Pakistan should bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack to justice expeditiously and in a transparent manner. It should act decisively to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its territory," she said.

In the course of her address, Ms Rao first delineated India's foreign policy priorities and how its approach was shaped by a globalising wold. She then spoke about climate change, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and terrorism, issues which formed part of the seminar. She also dwelt at some length on India's neighbourhood.

She said India's foreign policy aim was to secure an enabling environment to achieve the overriding domestic goal of all round, socially inclusive development.

She said the corollary to this was that a free and democratic India was a source of stability and a force for moderation in the region.

She pointed out that India accounted for more than 70% of the population and more than 80% of the GDP of South Asia.

"We want to widen our development choices. We have a keen sense of our potential to be a great power by virtue of our population, our resources and our strategic location. A fundamental goal of India’s foreign policy is to create an external environment that promotes the fulfillment of our economic growth targets and ambitions. And, these include three dimensions – capital inflows, access to technology and innovation, as well as the promotion of a free, fair and open world trading system that recognizes the development imperatives of a country like India. This requires a peaceful and stable neighbourhood and external environment, a balanced relationship with the major powers and a durable and equitable multilateral global order," she said.

Ms Rao said that, at the global level, India had worked with its international partners to address the complex challenges to revive the global economy.

"The 2008 global economic and financial crisis triggered the further evolution of the G20, of which India is a key constituent. At the Pittsburgh Summit, the G-20 was designated as the premier forum for international economic cooperation. We see the G-20 process as a move towards a more representative mechanism to manage global economic and financial issues," she said.

She felt the new global realities required that the existing governance models, put in place over six decades ago, be revisited and reorganised. In this regard, a dynamic global political and security order required the urgent reform of the UN Security Council as well, she said, adding that India saw its case for permanent membership of the Security Council as valid and legitimate.

Ms Rao spoke about the growth achieved by India in recent years but acknowledged this was not enough.

"To abolish poverty in India and to meet our development needs, we need to keep our economy growing at 8-10% every year for the next 20 years," she said.

On Climate Change, she said there was need for stable and predictable financing from the developed countries. There was also need for a global mechanism whereby climate friendly technologies could be disseminated to the developing countries.

Referring to the Copenhagen Accord, she said the world's collective effort should now be to bring the significant points of convergence reflected in the Accord into the larger multilateral process under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in order to ensure a balanced, comprehensive and above all, an equitable outcome, at the Mexico Conference by end-2010.

She also said that nuclear power generation, despite its high entry level costs, provided a way out, particularly in relation to the wider issues of global warming and climate change.

The Foreign Secretary said India had been affected by clandestine nuclear proliferation in its neighbourhood and was, naturally, concerned about the possibility of nuclear terrorism.

She said India beleived that the Nuclear Security Summit in April 2010 hosted by United States President Barack Obama would be an important milestone in the efforts to build international cooperation to prevent nuclear terrorism.

She said India had identified some initiatives that could be the building blocks of a new global, verifiable nuclear disarmament framework. "These include: a global agreement on ‘no-first-use’ of nuclear-weapons and non-use against non-nuclear weapon states; measures to reduce nuclear danger through de-alerting, reducing salience of nuclear weapons in security doctrines and preventing unintentional or accidental use; a Nuclear Weapons Convention prohibiting development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons and on their destruction etc.," she said.

She said India would support the emerging consensus in the Conference on Disarmament to adopt a programme of work.

"Last year, we supported the work plan including commencement of negotiations on the multilateral FMCT. On this latter issue, which we see as an important non-proliferation measure, India has had a consistent position – we are willing to negotiate a multilateral, non-discriminatory, effectively and internationally verifiable FMCT," she said.

Ms Rao spoke at length on terrorism, which she said posed an existential threat to the civilised world.

"It is a pivotal security challenge for India and in our neighbourhood. Terrorists have sought to undermine our sovereignty, security and economic progress, aided and abetted by forces beyond our borders. Our embassy in Kabul has faced vicious suicide bomb attacks twice, in 2008 and 2009. The Mumbai attacks of November 2008 and the more recent outrage in Pune, have once again demonstrated the barbaric face of terrorism. Terror groups implacably opposed to India continue to recruit, train and plot attacks from safe havens across our borders," she said.

She said open democratic societies such as India faced particular challenges in combating the threat of terrorism and listed the steps taken by the Government in recent times to address this through legal, institutional and administrative measures.

"At the same time, it is clear that the threat from terrorism cannot be dealt with through national efforts alone. Global outreach and linkages among terror networks are now quite evident and they are becoming more active. The global nature of the threat has been recognized widely. Global efforts to tackle the problem also need to be intensified. Terrorism needs to be countered collectively and expeditiously. It is time that the international community works towards early adoption of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that was tabled at the UN over a decade ago in 1996. We must act jointly and with determination to meet the challenges posed by terrorism and to defend the values of pluralism, peaceful co-existence and the rule of law," she said.

Turning to India's neighbourhood, Ms Rao said the country's goal of ushering in a peaceful, stable and prosperous neighbourhood was predicated on enabling each of its neighbours to pursue the shared objective of the development of their peoples.

"We do not see this as a zero sum game but as a cooperative endeavor, requiring collaboration rather than confrontation, so as to enable each of our neighbours to grow. We do not see this as a compulsion but as a natural choice voluntarily made; a corollary of the inter-dependent world we live in. We believe that our strengths place us in a unique position to actively support the socio- economic development in our region," she said.

Ms Rao said the greatest threat to peace and stability in the region emanated from the shelter terrorists find in the border of Afghanistan-pakistan and in Pakistan itself.

"The recent international approaches to Afghanistan, in particular the London Conference last month, are focusing on security and reintegration, development, governance and regional and international cooperation. The issue of reintegration should be tackled with prudence, the benefit of hindsight, foresight and caution. We believe that any integration process in Afghanistan should be Afghan-led, and should include only those who abjure violence, give up armed struggle and terrorism and are willing to abide by the values of democracy, pluralism and human rights as enshrined in the Afghan Constitution," she said.

She went on to provide details of India's engagement with Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and other members of SAARC.

She also spoke about India's relations with China, Japan and ASEAN and its role in the IBSA and BRIC groupings, among others.

NNN