From rxpgnews.com
India ready to be a global power: Pranab
By IANS,
Jan 16, 2007 - 10:04:06 PM
New Delhi, Jan 16 - External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday unveiled a vision of a rising India which is ready to play its role as a 'major power' by deepening ties with 'multiple power centres' in a post-Cold War world and promoting prosperity and integration in its neighbourhood.
Stressing that the new optimism about India's future is not based on 'an irrational exuberance' and but on a practical reading of the international situation, Mukherjee underscored the need for India to 'reposition' itself in an emerging global order and come to terms with its 'increasing weight' in the international system.
In a defining speech that cogently articulated India's rise and its implications for creating a new world order, he also spoke about the need to replicate the success of India's Look East policy with 'similar thrust towards its western neighbours' by creating trans-border transportation and energy corridors.
'As the world comes to terms with a rising India, we must, in turn, bear the burdens that come with being an important power,' Mukherjee told diplomats, businessmen and media persons at the launch of the Global India Foundation - a Kolkata-based think tank that seeks to promote analytical research on a new India and its place in the international order.
'Whether it is in addressing the new global challenges - from trade to environment to international security - or in the new regional opportunities for peace and prosperity, India is ready to fulfil its obligations,' he said in his keynote lecture on 'India and the global balance of power'.
'We do not wish to be passive observers and recipients of the actions of others, but would like to be one of the powers contributing to the shape of a global order which emerges and which allows us to pursue our vital interests,' he said.
This strategic approach also includes 'nurturing and increasing our activism in traditional constituencies' in the developing world like Africa and Asia, he stressed.
'As we approach the 60th anniversary of our independence, India's international prospects have never looked better,' he said while alluding to sustained over 8 percent economic growth and improving relations with major powers like the US, Russia, China, Japan and the 25-nation European Union.
'It recognises that for the first time in the last 60 years, India's relations with all the major powers are improving simultaneously. Our engagement with our extended neighbourhood - from South East Asia to Southern Africa - has become at once intense and broad ranging,' he said.
'India's ties with countries as far apart as Latin America and East Asia are rapidly expanding. Our relations with our neighbours, including China and Pakistan, are poised for a positive transformation,' he said.
He also underlined the urgency of restructuring leading global institutions, including the UN Security Council, to reflect the new power realities on the ground.
'What the world needs, then, is not old style balance of power but a well-crafted system to promote a 'balance of interests' among the major powers,' he said.
Stressing India's recognised strengths as a knowledge power, he also spoke about India's liberation from technology denial regimes through a landmark civil nuclear cooperation deal with the US and 'the centrality of India in the construction of a credible non-proliferation system'.
'Today's India is not a bystander to the actions of other powers. The choices India makes today have the potential to change outcomes on issues ranging from global environment to international security,' he stressed.
He also sought to dispel the impression of India as a regional hegemon and spoke about the need to promote shared prosperity in South Asia.
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