‘India is always on the side of peace’

TDT | Manama                                       

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Reported by Mahir Haneef

India has a robust foreign policy that enables it to speak to both or multiple sides of a conflict, His Excellency Vinod K Jacob, Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Bahrain, said. Responding to a question about the change in Indian foreign diplomacy in the past two decades, the Ambassador said, “India has a consistent position with respect to dealing with conflict anywhere in the world.

We believe in peaceful settlement of disputes, through dialogue and negotiation. If you take any issue anywhere in the world, you will see that India is always on the side of peace, always on the side of dialogue, and always calling for the end of hostilities.

At the same time, we are very clear that terrorism is not acceptable in contemporary international relations. It cannot be a means of resolving disputes or conflicts. In any conflict throughout the decades that you see, India is the one party which is able to speak to both sides or multiple sides to a conflict. That I think speaks to the robustness of Indian diplomacy.”

Explaining further about the change in India’s foreign policy and diplomatic service, the Ambassador said the fundamentals remain the same but the diplomatic practice has changed.

Foreign policy

“The fundamentals of Indian foreign policy, enshrined in the Constitution of India, obliges the Government of India to aim for friendly relations with all peoples and all countries, close cooperation with international organizations, respect for international law, and the concept of friendship and comity among nations. Those fundamentals remain. It is mainly in the practice of diplomacy that substantial changes have taken place, in areas like dealing with transnational challenges and the efforts to align together on the basis of values and interest groups.

For example, India is a part of the BRICS group of countries of major emerging economies and a part of the G20, BASIC group of countries which used to be an important force to reckon with in climate change negotiations till about eight or nine years back. We have joined in those sorts of groupings in order to promote our interests on the basis of common understandings,” the Ambassador explained.

The Ambassador also pointed out that India is a founding member of the United Nations, had signed the Charter of the United Nations even before India became independent, has been participating in UN Security Council as non-permanent member for many years, and has been the largest contributor to UN peacekeeping forces in the world until recently.

“The greatest number of martyrdoms in the service of world peace has been by Indian peacekeepers and I would salute those sacrifices,” His Excellency stated.