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A new dynamism

There have been several significant and hopeful developments in our foreign relations during recent months. The initiatives the Government of India have taken about relations with neighbouring countries have attracted favourable attention even abroad. This is as it should be, but it is in the immediate neighbourhood of a nation-state that developments vitally affect national interests, and a long-term effective foreign policy should be based on consolidation of peace and relaxation of tension on its borders. Indeed, this is the first imperative in the conduct of international relations.

We cannot however afford to stop with this in this techno­logically advanced age. The days of isolationism are long past. Developments in countries far away from us geographically have today an immediate physical impact upon our national life and on the daily life of the citizens as well.

In such a situation, when interdependence is not merely a political slogan but a fact of contemporary life, we have to be sensitive to the implications of political developments in distant lands. In other words, diplomatic initiatives in the last quarter of the twentieth century cannot be limited to one's own immediate neighbourhood or one's own region but must reach out to the farthest corners of the whole world.

During the last few months we have taken important initiatives towards the normalization of relations with two of our close neighbours, Pakistan and China. Both these steps have been recognised by observers at home as well as abroad, as meaningful and purposive in the context of onward progress of our foreign policy for stable world peace.

But our efforts to this end were thwarted by actions or obstacles not of our making. Even when our relations with these two countries deteriorated to what was looked upon by some as a point of no return, we maintained some type of a minimal dialogue directly and if that was not possible, through indirect channels. During all these years of divergence from friendship, of misunderstanding or actual antagonism with these neighbours, we endeavoured to exercise restraint.