A couple of days ahead of talks between the military commanders of India-China, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said New Delhi has made it clear to Beijing that peace and tranquility in the border areas is essential for the development of our relationship.
“Development of India-China relationship has to be based on ‘three mutuals’ – mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest,” he observed while opening the first-ever training module on India’s neighbourhood at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. The initiative is part of the Government’s efforts to mainstream Neighbourhood First policy in the functioning of all Ministries and Departments of the Government of India.Pointing out that India has also to contend with geo-political realities and extant threats such as cross-border terrorism and crime, he said while India wanted a good relationship with Pakistan, it cannot be at the expense of security. India will be resolute in dealing with the security challenges and continue to expand its capacities to do so. “We will build alliances and networks through multilateral and plurilateral constructs such as the UN, the FATF, SCO and closer home through BIMSTEC and IORA and IONS, to deal with security challenges,” he said.Turning to the neighbourhood, Shringla drew attention to two striking areas. The first is connectivity which has steadily improved, be it by road, water, rail and air, and often by multimodal transport. The railway is causing a “rapid shrinking of South Asia’s geography”. “Our diplomatic Missions in Sri Lanka and Yangon report an increasing trend in the number of visas being issued. Expenditures by these visitors have considerable economic benefits and spin-offs for India,” he added.
The second area of focus has been the energy sector. The Indian grid is connected to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and trans-national movement of electricity in the neighbourhood is a reality. There are no cross-border hydrocarbon pipeline links between India and Nepal and an India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline is also under construction.India’s Lines of Credit to its neighbours have also jumped from $3.27 billion in 2014 to $14.7 billion in 2020.There are also two other important areas in which India is working closely in the neighbourhood – healthcare and education – with the country emerging as regional hubs for both.
“Physical proximity means that we often share solutions. It also means, unfortunately, that many of our major foreign policy and security challenges arise from the neighbourhood. Some of our neighbours remain trapped in interpretations of history that do not allow them to adopt a progressive vision for the region,” he regretted.
