My Colleague, the ex-Foreign Minister, Mr. Dinesh Singh, particularly laid emphasis on this aspect and made a mention of the Asian Ministers council. Some meetings of this council took place. The last one was held in 1970. Afterwards it was not possible to hold them but in this matter our judgement is that you cannot force the pace. There are certain regional and internal contradictions which you cannot forcibly solve. This can be done by building bilateral co-operation and when you work out some sort of network of bilateral relations, as I mentioned, multilateral relationship may emerge. We will have to make very cautious though urgent efforts in this direction. Professor Mukherjee and Shri Daschowdhury also made a mention about it.

Recognising that the world grows more interdependent, politically as well as economically, we actively advocate and pursue a policy of international co-operation. This has been the guiding principle of our attitude particularly towards our neighbours. I have already spoken about Pakistan. In recent months, in our relations with some other neighbours, we have been able to resolve some long standing issues which had defined solution for generations. I refer to the Agreements with Sri Lanka on Kachachativu and the future of persons of Indian origin.

I refer also to the agreement with Bangladesh about Indo-Bangladesh land boundary. In our dealings with all neighbours, we have invariably kept in mind the principle of mutual benefit and sovereign equality. Most of our neighbours now have a better understanding and appreciation of our policy of friendship and co-operation and realise that we have no intention of interfering in their internal affairs or posing any threat to them in any form.

The House is, of course, aware of the recent political and constitutional changes in Bangladesh. So far as we are concerned, they do not signify any change in Bangladesh’s policy of friendship and cooperation with India and her non-aligned posture in foreign affairs. On our part, we shall continue to strike for the closest possible cooperation and friendship with that country. It is true that there are some outstanding issues such as the delimitation of martitime boundary and the Farakka barrage. But, we are confident that in the context of the genuine desire for amity and cooperation on both sides, a fair and amicable solution which safeguards the interests of both the countries will be reached.