Foreign secretary Shyam Saran said that the government had a long term vision of an integrated South Asia, where geographical boundaries would become irrelevant.
NEW DELHI: Dispelling criticism that India is not paying enough attention to its neighbours, concentrating instead on the US, Europe, China and Russia, foreign secretary Shyam Saran said that the government had a long term vision of an integrated South Asia, where geographical boundaries would become irrelevant.
Pointing out that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spelled out his vision for the region at the SAARC summit in Dhaka last year and invited all the neighbours to be part of India's growth, Saran said it was up to each country to accept the invitation.
Echoing the PM’s words Shyam Saran reassured the neighbours to look at a strong and prosperous India as an opportunity and not a threat. With the vision of an integrated South Asia in mind, New Delhi has put into place a number of measurers to help connect the countries of the region.
“The reality is that connectivity in South Asia was much more before independence. Today we have not been able to achieve even that level,” Saran said in a lecture he delivered at Sapru House organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs on Saturday.
India has proposed launch of cross-LoC bus services between Kargil and Skardu in PoK and Jammu and Sialkot these together with the existing Delhi-Lahore and Srinagar-Muzaffarabad routes have considerably helped in linking India and Pakistan. New Delhi is also upgrading its checkpoints and constructing integrated state of the art checkpoints in its border with every country. Besides the old Nathu La trading post, New Delhi wants to open another border trading point with China at Gumla. India is upgradating roads on border points.
Saran, however, said the success of such measures to integrate countries of the region depends on the “comfort” level of other countries. “India cannot force anyone to accept what it wants,” Saran said.
The message from Saran to Nepal, Bangaldesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Myanmar is we are willing to carry you along, but you can't hold us back, we will progress even without you. “The prospects are immense. The question is if there is political will to grasp this opportunity,” he said and underlined that India wants to do all it can to ensure that all countries have a stake in its growth.
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