BENGALURU :-BJP takes great pride in the significant new strides the foreign policy of our country has made under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi in the last ten months. The Prime Minister has pursued a bold, proactive and innovative foreign policy that is aligned with our Government’s primary goal of accelerating national economic development; and to fulfil Bharat’s global responsibilities as the world’s most populous youth nation and largest democracy.
Samman – dignity and honour; Samvad – greater engagement and dialogue; Samriddhi – shared prosperity; Suraksha – regional and global security; and Sanskriti evam Sabhyata – cultural and civilizational linkages; these five themes have become the Panchamrit – new pillars of our foreign policy.
The Government has moved with speed and resolve on a scale rarely seen in our external engagement, to restore Bharat’s position in international affairs, rebuild partnerships across the board and cross new frontiers in our foreign relations. Our global aspirations have been matched by greater global engagement with countries of all regions ignoring power-bloc politics. We have rendered irrelevant geo-politics of hyphenation while boosting bilateral relationships without being influenced by any third country. We have successfully deepened our engagement with all major powers and with countries in every region of the world. Our engagement has been characterised by independence of thought and action, and self confidence that comes from our heritage and draws strength from it.
In just ten short months our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister together have engaged with 94 countries from every part of the world adding a new dimension to our global mission of peace, partnership and prosperity.
We have successfully blended our foreign policy with national economic development goals with a new level of emphasis on improving Bharat’s access to capital, technology, resources, energy and skills. There is unprecedented global interest and confidence in Bharat, particularly through Prime Minister’s Make in India initiative designed to create jobs for our youth. There is optimism about Bharat’s emergence as an anchor of the global economy and as a leader in advancing peace and prosperity across the world.
Our economic development needs a secure environment, a peaceful neighbourhood and an open and stable global trading system. Bharat has emerged as an important player on regional and global security while displaying its firm conviction and capability in protecting its own sovereign interests. Even as we reached out to our neighbours and the world, we have shown our will to speak clearly on our security interests and defend them robustly.
Our foreign policy today reflects Bharat’s age-old cherished cultural and civilizational values in a more significant and profound manner than ever before. While our approach is determined by the imperatives of the globalised world, it is also rooted in our inheritance of a timeless tradition of intellectual and economic engagement through peaceful co-existence. Prime Minister has restored pride in Bharat’s civilisational identity and cultural traditions and drawn global attention to it in a manner that befits this oldest civilisation of the world.
Bharat enjoys an enhanced international stature today. There is not a single important global forum where our country’s stirring civilizational message has not reached and echoed. Prime Minister’s first speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in Hindi revived the memory of Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and energised the great national pride that all the countrymen feel, whether living in Bharat or any other part of the world. His call for accelerating reforms of the United Nations Security Council has imparted urgency to our efforts. His perceptive suggestion that the United Nations should become G-ALL has encouraged the world community, now divided into countless power blocs, to sit up and think.
His call for declaration of International Day of Yoga in the United Nations was adopted with record co-sponsorship and within record time. Inspired by the new atmosphere of dynamic leadership our diplomatic corps including our special mission at the UN have worked hard to secure unprecedented support to Prime Minister’s proposal. In just 75 days more than 177 member countries of the UN have supported and adopted the resolution to celebrate 21 June as the International Yoga Day.
We have also projected Bharat’s leadership on global challenges like climate change rooted in our traditions and a strong commitment to the future of our planet.
Reflecting Bharat’s civilizational virtue of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – the entire world as one family – we reached out to many countries across the globe with sovereign equality as the guiding principle. We provided strong leadership and new vision to East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN+India Summit, G 20 Summit, BRICS Summit and SAARC Summit, each of which is crucial to our region, Asia and the world. At the G20 Summit in Brisbane, Prime Minister placed the spotlight on the need for collective international action against black money, a vital national commitment in the pursuit of honesty, transparency and freedom from corruption. At ASEAN he underscored the necessity of keeping all sea routes including the South China Sea peaceful, open and safe.
Engaging with island nations in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions marked a new thrust in our foreign policy. For the first time our Prime Minister invited the leaders of the bloc of 14, small but significant, South Pacific Island nations at Suva in Fiji in September last year. Similarly for the first time, a new thrust has been added in our maritime neighbourhood in the Indian Ocean region, which is critical to our security. The visit of our Prime Minister to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka in February this year enhanced the stability and prosperity of littoral states in our region.
It is a great tribute to Bharat’s unequivocal commitment to democratic values that our Prime Minister was invited to address several Parliaments, including in Bhutan, Nepal, Australia, Fiji, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. Bharat has emerged as the Pole Star – Dhruv Tara – of the democratic world.
The Prime Minister filled a long gap in many bilateral relations with visits to – Nepal after 17 years, Sri Lanka after 28 years, Australia after 28 years, Fiji after 33 years and Seychelles after 34 years.
