LIVE MINT, MARCH 2017

ON LOOKING BACK AT 25 YEARS OF RELATIONS

I think I would look at the past 25 years as a process. You can look at the milestones through specific junctions, but I would prefer to look at the relations as a crescendo that goes beyond the political. They encompass many fields in the lives of our peoples and the governments which are governing the peoples. Namely safety, security—safeguarding the security of the territory and safeguarding the safety of the people—developmental challenges, which include the need for food, the need for water, health, and education which I would say is the more strategic target of our countries.

We have identified joint interests in these fields, and strengthened our relations in the traditional and the non-traditional ways. The traditional way is the general bilateral relations, there were some specific areas which received more attention—there was specific strengthening of relations in the defence sector—but it was not too visible which was part of the Indian policy at the time.

In the last few years—and I am not talking specifically the past two or three years—the trend and the process of strengthening relations putting in more ingredients related to development has seen a rise.