Former Permanent Representative of India to the UN T. P. Srinivasan said that the country’s foreign policy is moving from the Nehruvian approach to a more ‘transactional’ approach.
Mr. Srinivasan was speaking one of the ‘dialogues’ at Deccan Dialogues at the ISB here on Sunday.
The senior diplomat said that while the Nehruvian approached tended to project India’s needs, such as disarmament, decolonisation, economic right and equitable distribution of wealth, as the world’s needs, the transactional approach, as being practised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has India’s development and security as priorities.
“People may say that this is transactional, unlike Pandit Nehru who was promoting the world altogether. What exactly is better for India, we would know later. But this is what has changed the functioning of our missions abroad. Because from a perspective of global identity, we are projecting our own strengths and needs to the world,” he said.
Mr. Srinivasan said that the PM is trying to change the employer-employee relationship India has with West Asian countries.
“They need to have a stake in India’s future, the Gulf countries. And we are seeing that,” he said.
Chief Executive of Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board J. Krishna Kishore pointed out that investments worth ₹ 70,000 crore have been grounded in that state.
ITC Ltd Agri and IT Business Head S. Sivakumar said that agriculture should be elevated to the level of diplomacy on account of climate change and depleting natural resources. He said that India has 17% of world’s people but only 4 % of water resources and 2.5% of arable land.
Consul General in the Consulate General of Canada in Bengaluru Jennifer Daubney and Joint Secretary Economic Diplomacy and States Divison in the Ministry of External Affairs Vinod K. Jacob spoke.
The Hindu Business Line is the media partner for the event.
