Day: August 18, 2012

Imphal, Aug 18 NNN: India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said India will walk extra miles in order to maintain good relations with its neighbours.
Inaugurating an international conference on “India and Her Neighbours: Revisiting Relations With Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives”, Ranjan Mathai said,” India always gives higher priority to our neigbours.”
The two-day international conference hosted by Jadavpur Association of International Relations (JAIR) at Manipur University began yesterday participated by Daw Yin Yin Myint who is the director general of Training, Research and Foreign Language, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Myanmar, Mahhub Hassan Saleh who is the Deputy High Commissioner of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dasho Tsering Wangda, General Consul of the Royal Bhutanese Consulate, Kyaw Swe Tint, Consul General of Myanmay and Chandra Kumar Ghimire, Royal Nepalese Consulate General.
Addressing the gathering Ranjan Mathai, secretary, Ministry of External Affairs underlined the need to bring a stable and good neighbourly relations among India’s neighbours. He said,”SAARC has not achieved as much as we hope but we are giving our best effort in it.” The Foreign Secretary then stressed that besides the government’s good diplomatic relations among the neighbours, the people to people relationship is a must. “We need to understand more about each other,” Ranjan Mathai said.
The Foreign Secretary then elaborately highlighted the gains each neighbouring country enjoys. “About 40% of tourists in Nepal are from India and again, about 5 lakh citizens of Nepal got employment in India,” said Ranjan Maithai. Likewise, the Foreign Secretary also mentioned about Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and other neighbouring countries.
Meanwhile, Jadavpur Association of International Relations (JAIR), the main organisation behind this event, said that the political scenario in South Asia involving India and her immediate neighbours has transmuted over the past decade. ‘Many of these small states have experienced wide ranging transformations in their domestic political, economic and social spheres. These shifts have, to a large extent, been oriented towards gradual democratization and economic liberalisation of the polity. The trajectory of these far reaching shifts has not been without event and have, in more instances than not been vibrant as well as volatile,” said the JAIR in a press communique. The JAIR then said that however, while these transformations have been extensive for the countries experiencing them, they found little place of interest in global politics due to the over reaching geo-strategic predominance of the larger neighbours such as China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Nevertheless, considering the need for India to engage and develop mutual relations with small states such as Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives, the international conference has been organised to deliberate and contribute to construct engagements with these states. The conference seeks to serve as a platform for reviewing and revisiting India’s role with respect to these nations. Such an engagement is also warranted by India for the realization of its objective of becoming a rising power and a regional leader,” state the JAIR note.
With its members of experts and practitioners specialising on South and South East Asia as well as domestic and foreign diplomats, the JAIR is poised to provide a forum for reflections and tangible inputs on the same,

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/india-wants-good-relations-with-neighbours-foreign-secy/