The Indian foreign policy has moved beyond its old preoccupations of Pakistan and China, foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai said in London on Thursday.
“The Indian foreign policy is at present preoccupied with an extraordinarily large number of issues at global and regional levels,” Mr Mathai said.
The foreign secretary, who is in London for the fifth IISS-Indian ministry of external affairs dialogue, gave the keynote address before the start of the deliberations on Thursday on Afghanistan, the Arab Spring and building UK-India strategic relations.
He said that India was strategically focusing on ties with a range of countries across the globe and highlighted cooperation with Brazil and South Africa. He also revealed that India in building up ties, economic, developmental and defence, with Japan, which is aiding in development of infrastructure building in India, including the vital New Delhi-Mumbai corridor.
Revealing that India and Pakistan had only made progress in trade and people to people relations, Mr Mathai said there had not been any substantial progress in the other fields. India, he said, has taken a subdued, or a practical approach, towards the dialogue with Pakistan as it wants action with regard to the Mumbai terrorist attacks before progress can be expected.
He also linked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s proposed visit to Pakistan on the progress on the Mumbai issue.
The Prime Minister has said he is looking forward to the visit, but wants substantive progress on the Mumbai issue before anything can be finalised, Mr Mathai said.
Refusing to comment on what would be India’s stand if Iran was found to have nuclear weapons, Mr Mathai said, “The only way to find a durable solution is through diplomatic negotiations and we give utmost importance to the P5+1 engagement with Iran. The consequences of any other way of trying to deal with this problem would be very very severe.”
The Indian foreign secretary described the Turkmanistan-Afghan-istan-Pakistan-India oil pipeline as one of the ways the whole region in the neighbourhood of Afghan-istan could successfully cooperate.