Will Pakistan agree to join the economic mainstream of the world for prosperity and overcome the stumbling blocks – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wonders
Sudhir Chadda
Jul. 3, 2005

Prime Minister of India in an interaction with 2004 Batch of Indian Foreign Service (IFS) probationers at his official residence in New Delhi wondered if Pakistan will decide to come on board crossing the bridge of stumbling blocks and join the India-Pak prosperity band wagon.

"It is my honest hope that we can find a new relationship with Pakistan whereby, despite bilateral outstanding problems, we make cautious effort to resolve them. But if all problems cannot be resolved in one go, that should not block the possibilities of economic cooperation," he said according to media reports.

Observing that so far Indo-Pak relations have "proved to be a stumbling block in carrying forward the processes of regional cooperation", he said "it is our effort to persuade Pakistan that we cannot hold back this process which is underway in many parts of the world and other regions like ASEAN, European Union (EU) and Latin America."

The Prime Minister spoke of the difficulties in achieving this. "We have not succeeded so far. But, I have not given up hope. I am not saying that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. But we are working very hard. Asserting that India is a responsible nuclear power, Singh said it was ready to cooperate with like-minded countries to promote a regime so that unauthorised proliferation of nuclear weapons was stopped. "We have voluntarily declared a no-first-use. We have voluntarily declared a moratorium on further test," he said added that his government has also passed a stringent law on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) so that the sensitive technology will not fall into wrong hands. "Nuclear disarmament remains our preferred commitment and there is no dilution in it," he stressed.

Maintaining that nation's security was of prime concern, he said without security on the country's borders, India cannot achieve economic and social goals. Dr. Singh also stressed that there was need for a sustained struggle against the terrorism, while dealing with other problems like disease, poverty and inequality. "There are forces working for integration. There are forces dividing the world. There are some states who have themselves promoted the scourge of terrorism....The civilised world feels threatened by the onslaught of terrorism," he said.

Dr. Singh said that in the present era of interdependence, there was a need to develop cooperation among States to tackle formidable problems like environmental degradation and chronic poverty. He asked the foreign office probationers to project India's values and concerns to the outside world.

UNI adds: Replying to clarifications sought by the probationers, numbering 16 in all, the Prime Minister said the government was looking at the reform of the civil services.

Asked whether the new performance appraisal model for the civil services would be extended to other government services, Dr Singh said the experiment would have to be carried out very "cautiously." The government also wanted to go for electoral reforms aimed at ensuring the greater participation of the middle class in the political process.

While the poor people had realised that their participation in the election process was vital for their interests, the middle class still shunned politics. This had to be changed as no society could progress unless the educated middle class who had a long-term stake in economic progress joined the political process, he said. Asking the budding diplomats to have a deep understanding of the socio-economic process and the unity in diversity within India and the challenges and the risks being faced by the country in the global economy, he said "globalisation is a reality we cannot wish away. We cannot roll back the onward march of science and technology."

India's effort has been to ensure that this process resulted in equitable development of all nations, particularly the developing world.

The Prime Minister told the young diplomats that India's foreign policy was a mere extension of "our national interest" and asked them to work for making India a "major power house" of global economy.

Referring to the 75 million non-resident Indians, the Prime Minister said their increasing remittances was very vital for the country's economic growth.

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