India to Promote Relations with Other Countries

Indian President Kocheril Raman Narayanan said Monday that New Delhi would promote an external network of peaceful and friendly relations with other countries to enable it to focus on internal task of nation building.

Opening the budget session of the joint sitting of the Indian parliament, the president said India's foreign policy, resting on a strong foundation of continuity and national consensus, had responded creatively to the changing global scenario.

"The principal trust of our foreign policy is to promote an external network of peaceful and friendly relations which would enable us to focus on our internal task of nation building," he said.

Central to this objective was New Delhi's consistent pursuit of friendly relations with all its neighbors, Narayanan said, adding that "indeed, our ties with all of them, barring Pakistan, have continued to grow both in substance and in scope".

He accused Pakistan of not reciprocating India's sincerity for resumption of the stalled dialogue process to normalize relations, saying the Indian government was pursuing a multi-pronged strategy to bring peace and normalcy in the disputed Kashmir.

"There has been no let-up in, much less an end to, cross-border terrorism and vicious anti-India propaganda, originating from Pakistani soil," the president told the members of the parliament who began their deliberations of the annual budget beginning from April 1, and the tenth five-year plan which begins in 2003.

Asserting that India's external and internal security was the highest priority for the government, Narayanan said New Delhi was committed to further strengthening its strategic response capability to meet any eventuality.

"India's external and internal security is the highest priority for the government. We are committed to further strengthening the country's strategic response capability to meet any eventuality," the president said in his 23-page address.

A group of ministers had examined the recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee on the national security system and would soon submit its proposals, he added.

India and neighboring Pakistan fought a three-month battle in Kargil region of the disputed Kashmir in 1999.






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