Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy told a Chinese government-backed meeting on Sunday that the new government in New Delhi would prioritise ties with South Asian countries and neighbours in its foreign policy, as he made a case for “refurbishing” SAARC’s organisational structure to make the “weak” body more effective.
Dr. Swamy, invited to address the “World Peace Forum” at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, said any further evolution of SAARC would also require the United States and China, currently observers, to have a greater role in its deliberations.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear that in foreign policy, neighbours come first,” he said, with SAARC countries — whose leaders were invited to Mr. Modi’s swearing-in — being followed by Asia and then the United States in terms of emphasis. “Mr. Modi overruled people who said Pakistan should not be invited,” he said.
“His first trip was to Bhutan, also a SAARC country. He disregarded objections in Tamil Nadu and invited [Sri Lankan President] Rajapaksa. We are expecting the President of China to visit India [later this year]. I think our approach would be to deal with Asian neighbours and their interests first, and then proceed further.”
Sunday’s meeting involved former leaders including Japan’s Yukio Hatoyama and Pakistan’s Shaukat Aziz, serving and retired diplomats, and strategic experts from around the world for discussions on China’s relations with the U.S., Japan, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Dr. Swamy said there was “an urgent need for structuring a new paradigm” for regional ties in South Asia, with the present SAARC charter that prevents the inclusion of bilateral issues in its agenda undermining its effectiveness and making the grouping “anaemic.”
Trilateral meetingHe pointed to issues such as Pakistan’s “explicit and implicit complicity in terror” and illegal immigration from Bangladesh has “roadblocks” that needed addressing. India should also have trilateral meetings with the U.S. and China considering the reality of their influence on countries in the neighbourhood. Increased political understanding with China would also help address lingering issues such as the boundary dispute, he said citing the example of China and Russia settling their dispute.
