AMRITSAR: The minister of state for external affairs, Raghunandan Lal Bhatia, April 17 blamed Pakistan for disturbing peace in the South Asian region by its “support to militants and secessionists in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir.” During his convocation address of the Guru Nanak Dev University on “India’s Foreign Policy Perspectives, Bhatia expressed concern at the sudden “upsurge in Sub nationalism and secessionist trends” in the South Asian region.
He said since India wanted amicable ties with its neighbors, sincere efforts had been made to solve bilateral issues with Pakistan despite its continuing support to militants and subversives. “We have taken many confidence-building measures but Pakistan’s policies continue to be a serious damper in the improvement of our relations,” the minister said. India, he said, felt there was a grave threat to World peace in the increasing “religious, ethnic and racial tensions” in various parts of the world, including South Asia had voiced concern at different international for an over these issues and called on the international community to adopt adequate measures to Combat terrorism. Besides strengthening bilateral relations with neighbors, the major thrust of India’s foreign policy has been to promote regional cooperation. India continued to play a seminal role in the SAARC. The draft frame work agreement on the establishment of South Asia Preferential Trading Agreement (SAPTA) and the SAARC fund for identification and development of regional projects would help in consolidating economic and trade organizations among the SAARC nations, he said.
India’s foreign policy, he said, had also addressed itself to global concerns like the proliferation of nuclear arms. India had worked for a “global, comprehensive and nondiscriminatory” approach for the elimination of nuclear arms.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 23, 1993
