To improve India’s foreign policy, the country first needs stronger ties with its neighbours, Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said.
“To me, Indian foreign policy is a tool to facilitate the domestic transformation of India” Tharoor said speaking on ‘India in the 21st century,’ an event organised by the South Indian Chamber of Commerce here.
He said the fundamental need is to have a strong peaceful coexistence with India’s own neighbors as having a peaceful periphery is the first step to attracting foreign investment.
He said there is no Congress foreign policy or BJP foreign policy – only national foreign policy. For a successful policy, he reiterated the words of former PM Dr Manmohan Singh spoken in Bangladesh in 2011 that India will not be able to realise its own destiny without the partnership of its South Asian neighbours. It was something, he added, the present government needed to realise in connection with issues with Pakistan, Maldives, Doklam issue with China, and the Rohingya crises.
He emphasised the need for free trade among the South Asian countries which is now only 5% of their total trade. He said though the current government is taking several measures, nothing is visible.
He added India needs to build its image of being a soft power alongside being a hard power to become a strong economy.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/stronger-ties-needed-with-our-neighbours/articlesho