New Delhi, Oct 17: The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that different aspects of modern Central Asia are being studied in different research institutions in the country and the need of the hour is to enhance coordination and cooperation amongst them to avoid overlapping, ensure better utilization of available resources and, eventually, more meaningful inputs for our foreign policy objectives. Delivering inaugural address at the National Seminar on “India and Central Asia: Perspectives on Bilateral and Regional Cooperation” organized by Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) at Chandigarh today he has said that greater attention also needs to be devoted to language skills and the study of social impulses in individual societies. Diligent field work is essential for both and must be undertaken.
He said that foreign policy formulation rarely begins with a clean slate. Its building blocks, instead, consist of ground realities. Aspirations and objectives help give it shape; the baggage of the past is sought to be avoided but is rarely achieved comprehensively. Success thus lies, as Henry Kissinger put it, in ‘patient accumulation of partial successes.’
Shri Ansari opined that over the past two decades and despite being land locked, Central Asia emerged as one of the fastest growing regions in the world, and has displayed considerable development potential. It is resource rich in terms of oil, gas, gold, cotton, rare-earths, has relatively advanced infrastructure and human capital, and enjoys the benefit of a strategic location between Asia and Europe. Many of the Central Asian Republics have embarked on market-oriented economic reforms to boost private sector competitiveness and economic performance. As a result, leading and aspiring powers are active in the region in quest of natural resources, energy pipelines and transit routes leading to wide ranging geopolitical considerations pertaining to security, prevention of drug and arms smuggling, and countering terrorism and fundamentalism.
The Vice President said that no discussion on Central Asia and its immediate neighbourhood would be complete without taking on board the challenges arising out of the situation in Afghanistan. The lesson of history is that hegemonic prescriptions do not sustain themselves and result in greater chaos. The entire region would therefore benefits if realistic alternatives are thought of and Afghanistan drawn into a cooperative regional economic and security framework so that nation-building there could proceed based on economic development, social harmony, rule of law and participatory democracy in consonance with the wishes of the Afghan people. Such an approach should be underwritten by the United Nations and all interested powers.
He said that the world of tomorrow cannot and must not be visualized on the patterns of a past that resulted in misery and bloodshed. India wishes to eschew archaic concepts of Great Game and Grand Chessboard and, instead, be a partner for peace, stability and economic development in the region. India also hopes that the people of Central Asia do not give quarter to fundamentalism and religious extremism in their respective societies since these trends are disruptive and hamper progress.
He complemented CRRID for undertaking this initiative of seeking perspectives on the potential for cooperation between Central and South Asia for peace, security and development.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/national-seminar-on-india-central-asia-at-crrid-chandigarh/
