CHANDIGARH, Oct 17:
Vice President M Hamid Ansari today said no discussion on Central Asia and its immediate neighbourhood will be complete without taking on board challenges arising out of situation in Afghanistan.
“The entire Central Asia will benefit if realistic alternatives are thought and Afghanistan is 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 Afghan people,” he said here.
Ansari was delivering the inaugural address at a seminar on ‘India and Central Asia: Perspectives on bilateral and regional cooperation’ here.
He said many of the Central Asian Republics have embarked on market oriented economic reforms to boost private sector competitiveness and economic performance.
As a result, he said, 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 counter terrorism and fundamentalism.
Furtherance of trade and economic cooperation with the region, beginning with Afghanistan, hinges on connectivity which in turn is intrinsically dependent on access route options and its policy and practical implications, he said.
“The easiest route through Pakistan and Afghanistan appears totally dependent on a good mix of human wisdom and divine intervention. Both seem elusive in the foreseeable future,” he said.
He said the second point of access through Iran and Afghanistan is a real possibility and appears to take shape through the proposed development of the Chabahar port and the completion of Zaranj Delaram highway.
“A variant of this for Central Asian states dependent on the upgrading of railway track in Iran, could be the Iran- Turkmenistan route. Both would require fine tuning of policy and long term financial commitments,” he said.
Noting that Central Asia emerged as one of the “fastest growing regions” in the world, Ansari said it is resource rich in terms of oil, gas, gold, cotton, rare earths and has relatively advanced infrastructure and human capital and enjoys benefit of strategic location between Asia and Europe.
He said new ground realities in the post-Soviet period called for a redefining of India’s strategic interests in the region.
“Our primary interest is stability in the region. The task of diplomacy is to build new relationships and protect and enhance economic and commercial interests. We are successful in the first and are struggling with the second,” he said.
He said India has entered strategic partnership agreements with three of the five Central Asian Republics – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and increased cooperation between specialised security agencies and defence forces.
“India wishes to 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 said.
Ansari said 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 utilisation of available resources and, eventually, more meaningful inputs for our foreign policy objectives.
He said 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.
He said 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,” he said. (PTI)
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