India hopes people from Central Asia do not give fodder to fundamentalism: Ansari

Delivering the inaugural address at the three-day seminar on ‘India and Central Asia: Perspectives on Bilateral and Regional Cooperation’,he also mentioned that greater attention needs to be devoted to language skills and the study of social impulses in individual societies and diligent field work is essential for both. He added that foreign policy formulation rarely begins with a clean slate. Instead,ground realities and past relations are objectively analysed initially.

Ansari felt that over the past two decades,despite being land locked,Central Asia has emerged as one of the fastest growing regions in the world,and has displayed considerable development potential. He further discussed the potentials of and possible challenges faced by various countries like Afghanistan,Pakistan,Tazakhistan,Uzbekistan,Turkmenistan,China and Russia.

“India hopes that the people of Central Asia do not provide fodder to fundamentalism and religious extremism in their respective societies,” he concluded.

Speaking on the occasion,Parkash Singh Badal,Chief Minister of Punjab,said that it would be mutually beneficial if the unemployed farmers of Punjab could cultivate the vast unutilized land available in other central Asian countries. He lamented that the three major issues concerning bilateral ties between the countries relate to security,visa norms and trade and commercial laws of the countries. He added that the partition of 1947 has had an adverse economic effect on both India and Pakistan.

Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty,Special Secretary,Ministry of External Affairs,Government of India,highlighted India’s role in international diplomatic relations and said that a connectivity at the government and public level is being established to improve relations with other countries. He further said that whereas Indian films and cultural exchange programmes have become a big vehicle for maintaining cordial relations with the people living abroad,especially in Central Asia,regular high level interactions with the world leaders are being made for the progress,prosperity and peace in the region.

Other guests at the seminar were,T K A Nair,Advisor to the Prime Minister of India,Salman Hyder,former Foreign Secretary of India,Professor G M Mir,Director,Centre for Central Asian Studies,Kashmir University,Srinagar; Rashpal Malhotra,Executive Vice-Chairman,CRRID and Professor Sucha Singh Gill,Director General,CRRID,Chandigarh.