*Topic:: India is *emerging as a leader, capable of handling political and military aggression with respect to changing dynamics with neighbours.*Debate in favour
Answers
At the outset I would like to express my gratitude to the Management of the Maharshi Dayanand University of Rohtak and Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs for giving me the opportunity to address the students of this University. This is my second visit to your University and I vividly recall my interaction with well-informed audience last year.
I have been assigned the task to speak to you on India’s foreign policy approaches towards its neighbourhood.
Let me begin with a quickly sketched profile of South Asia which accounts for the bulk of our neighbourhood. I will later touch upon our next door neighbours in East Asia namely China and if time permits also Myanmar.
India’s neighbourhood which the member-countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka comprise, is a fairly complex geographical entity. This is to say the least. In fact India can be said to be living in a dangerous neighbourhood. The constituent countries-individually as well as collectively-represent a world of historical links, shared legacies, commonalities as well as diversities which are so elaborately reflected in their ethnic, linguistic, religious and political fabric. China and Myanmar, the other two neighbours, are no less complex.