Visualising a greater role for India and Turkey in the region shared by the two countries, Vice-President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday outlined the broad contours of India's “Look West” policy, which included an endorsement of Palestinian aspirations in the United Nations.
“We do not share physical borders, but we do have a vast common extended neighbourhood — in Central Asia, West Asia and the Persian Gulf. I am convinced that enhanced engagement between India and Turkey is in the interests of our peoples and regions, global peace and tolerance and peaceful co-existence among nations. Our joint efforts can result in a more balanced, inclusive and sustainable development for the benefit of vast sections of humanity,” Mr. Ansari said in his address at the Mevlana University.
He was conferred with an honorary Doctorate degree for International Relations and honorary citizenship of the city, which is known to be the resting place of 13th Century Persian poet and theologian Jalaal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, also known as the Mevlana, or Rumi. Tracing the changing matrix of international order since the collapse of the Cold War, Mr. Ansari gave an overview of Indian foreign policy and stressed that world bodies, such as the U.N. and Bretton Woods Institutions, should reflect contemporary realties and not “perpetuate historical contexts and divides.”
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