Transcript of  Foreign Secretary Smt. Nirupama Rao’s speech  at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), Paris, May 5, 2011

Mr. Dominique Moisi (DM), Special Advisor, IFRI welcomed the Foreign Secretary and made opening remarks: “We are very pleased and honoured to receive the Foreign Secretary of India, Nirupama Rao, who has had a remarkable career, and I think one of the very interesting time of your life was as the first woman Ambassador to China.”

FS added : “And to Sri Lanka”

DM corrected himself: “And to Sri Lanka, you are absolutely right. But you are also a poet and title of collection of your poems, very beautiful evocative – Rain Rising – so, a diplomat and a poet, who will enlighten us on the “Role of India in Global Affairs”. You have the floor.”

FS’s address :

“Thank you Mr. Dominique Moisi, Special Advisor of the French Institute of International Relations. It is a pleasure to be here this evening. Distinguished invitees, ladies and gentlemen.

I must say this is a fortuitous confluence of time and place. A juncture where both France and India, who value multipolarity and cooperation to create a new global order, are able to play a greater role in influencing the future of the world.

India, buoyed by its rapid and sustainable economic growth seeks to play a role commensurate with its size and destiny, whether in UN Security Council or other multinational institutions and therefore, our strategic partner France, which also heads the G8 and G20 at the critical moment when international cooperation is imperative to take the world back on the path of economic recovery, so this is what I spoke of as a fortuitous confluence of time and place that we meet here today to discuss India’s role in global affairs.

It’s also a time of profound political understanding between the highest political leadership of both our countries and President Sarkozy’s unwavering support for an enhanced role of India on the global stage resonates deeply in my country. Our Prime Minister has clearly voiced this when he said, “It is our ardent wish that the partnership between our two democracies is further strengthened and deepened in the years to come.” But the strength of our partnership goes far beyond a convergence of immediate interests since as fellow democracies and pluralistic open societies we respect freedom and human rights and believe deeply that values surrounding freedom and human rights must inform the emerging world order. The closer relationship between our two countries is sustained, and this is important, is sustained by popular support and which is perhaps why we give so much importance to our political, economic and commercial ties as also, to people-to-people ties, to educational, scientific, tourism and cultural cooperation between our two countries. We are of course very pleased that our enhanced strategic partnership in areas such as defence, civil nuclear energy, space, science and technology has further deepened and strengthened in recent years.

I also speak of our shared values and our vision. Two countries who believe in multilateralism, peaceful co-existence, justice, freedom, equality and fraternity - these are precisely the values that are required for a sustainable and equitable global order in the 21^st century. That is why also India seeks to engage the international community in essential reforms of the international governance system, which is also one of the priorities of the French presidency of the G20. There is a clear need of in-depth reform of the United Nations, including of its Security Council. France, I am happy to say, has repeatedly affirmed its support for India to become a permanent member of the Security Council, of an expanded Security Council, infact without further delay, as President Sarkozy said in Delhi in December last year at his press conference, and I quote, “It is not simply a question of India’s interest, it is a question of global equilibrium. You can’t exclude a billion inhabitants from resolving the world’s great issues.”

What were the well-springs of India’s foreign policies as we began life as an independent nation - there were issues such as decolonisation, the principles of peaceful co-existence among nations, striving for an equitable global system for socio-economic development, initiatives towards global disarmament and robust participation in United Nation’s peace keeping. All this shaped the initial imprint left by India on global affairs in the last five decades of the 20^th century. They are not irrelevant – these issues – to our participation in global affairs today, driving our foreign policy priorities and our desire for strategic autonomy, in addition to factors of external security, internal security, the need for sustained economic growth, our energy security, maritime security and of course access to technology and innovation to sustain our economic growth. Further, may I say that India is too large a country to be dovetailed in alliance type relationships. In order to modernise our country, we need to, and I believe we have succeeded in, forging well-rounded strategic relationships and partnerships with all the major powers. India has a keen sense of our potential to be a great power by virtue of our population, our resources and our strategic location. The goal of our foreign policy is to create an external environment that promotes the furtherance of our economic growth targets and ambitions and, these as I said earlier, include the dimensions of capital inflows and access to technology and innovation as well as the promotion of a free, fair and open world trading system that recognizes the development imperatives of countries like India. And all this requires a peaceful and stable neighbourhood, and external environment, a balanced relationship with the major powers and a durable and equitable multilateral global order. That is why we have supported the process of reform and restructuring of the United Nations to make it better equipped, to effectively respond to the evolving needs of its membership. Objective realities underscore the need for thorough going and genuine UN reforms. An organisation, which is 6 decades old, its membership has expanded nearly 4 times since the charter was signed and the world today, as we all recognise, is very different from the world of 1945. The challenges of the 21^st century – political, economic, social, environmental or demographic – are global in nature, and the world is more interconnected and interdependent than any period in world history. This necessitates the comprehensive reforms therefore, of the United Nations aimed at its revitalisation. It is essential that the Security Council be expanded in both its permanent and non-permanent categories, and that developing countries from Asia, from Africa and Latin America who are capable of taking on increased global responsibilities are included as its permanent members.

Just a short while ago the election of India to a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council for the term 2011-12 expressed a resounding endorsement of faith by the international community in India’s ability to play a meaningful role in the Security Council. We strive to be a voice of moderation and constructive engagement in the decisions of the Security Council. Our priorities include, and will include peace and stability in our near and extended neighbourhood, including Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa; counter terrorism including the prevention of the proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction to non-state actors and the strengthening of UN peace keeping. We will demonstrate to the international community that India on the Security Council is good for the world. During its current membership of the Security Council, India has become the chair of the counter terrorism committee as well as the working group 1566 which deals with threats to international peace and stability by terrorist acts.  We have emphasised that terrorism is a global phenomenon whose destruction potential and lethal reach is enhanced by linkages to illicit trafficking of drugs and small arms and international money-laundering operations. To be effective, the fight against terrorism must be long-term, sustained and global. It must tackle not just the perpetrators of those acts but also those who sponsor them. Domestic measures alone cannot deal with terrorism as long as countries continue to provide safe havens for terrorists and, let me also add that no cause justifies resorting to terror.  Since the existing international conventions on terrorism covers the specific sectoral aspects, India has taken the initiative to pilot the comprehensive convention on international terrorism or the CCIT in the United Nations, with the objective of providing a comprehensive legal framework to combat terrorism. We are committed to continue our efforts for an early conclusion of negotiations on this crucial convention and its adoption by all the UN member states.

There is also a threat we face from piracy today and we are committed to fully support the international community in our efforts to counter piracy off the coast of Somalia. The Indian Navy is deployed in the Gulf of Aden and we have been able to successfully thwart several piracy attempts in these waters, India is among the founding members of the Contact Group on Piracy off the coast of Somalia – the CGPCS. As piracy is increasing and spreading from the Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin to the larger Indian Ocean, our Navy is working with other navies in order to better coordinate the international effort to combat and eliminate this scourge. And, we have growing cooperation with the European Union, particularly with France especially on the sharing of the information and building of the capacities, including legal capacities and mechanisms in the region for detention and prosecution of pirates.

The international financial and economic crisis originated in the developed world from where it spread to the developing countries and emerging economies. India too, was adversely affected but to a comparatively a lesser extent. We fared much better than others on account of three factors. Firstly, the inherent strength of the Indian economy and sustained domestic demand that helped to mitigate the impact from external sources, especially on our exports and foreign investments. Secondly, the Indian financial and banking system proved sound and resilient and it successfully withstood the test of the time. Our regulatory measures were by and large able to insulate the Indian financial system and banking system from major shocks and setbacks from abroad. There exist a broad consensus that a financial and economic crisis of such proportions - today we call it a great recession - in the case of the present crisis - requires a well-coordinated global response. The G20 comprising of the most developed countries as well as the leading developing economies, emerging market economies have worked together, coupled together in meeting the challenges posed by the crisis and recession. Beginning at the level of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, we have raised the interaction to the Summit level where leaders meet and are able to send a strong message for building confidence and stability. In the meantime, while stimulus and growth packages have been nationally implemented, the G20 has enabled coordinated action that we believe has contributed to meeting the immediate challenge of the recession successfully. In the run-up to the next, that is the 6^th G20 Summit in November 2011 in France under the French presidency, the G20 has embarked on a very ambitious and far-reaching, forward-looking agenda. On the one hand, this entails implementation of past G20 decisions, which is critical to the credibility of the G20. Given the past record of the Group in combating the economic crisis we are optimistic that the G20 will deliver on its decisions. On the other hand, the G20 is looking to scale new heights as seen from the ever-expanding agenda covering the reform of the international monetary system, volatility in commodity markets, both in agricultural commodities in particular food security as well as fuel price fluctuations having a bearing on energy security and the challenge posed by continuing unemployment in many economies. All this needs to be looked at closely and India stands ready to engage with its partners in the G20 to address these challenges.

Turning to disarmament, we have championed the cause of universal disarmament and we share with France this goal as also the commitment to the reinforcement of the non-proliferation regime. India will be able to contribute to enhancing international efforts through full membership, which we seek to achieve, of multilateral export regimes like the NSG, the MTCR, the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement in a manner consistent with the procedures and objectives of these groups. We are appreciative of French support for our membership of these bodies. The constructive and forward-looking approach that was adopted towards India in September 2008 by the NSG – the Nuclear Suppliers Group – has enabled full international civil nuclear cooperation with India as also our nuclear energy cooperation agreements with major partners including the United States, Russia, France and the United Kingdom. These constitute not only a long overdue recognition of India’s standing as a country with advanced nuclear technology and responsible behaviour but have also opened up significant opportunities for technical and technological collaboration. It is equally important to see the relevance of these developments in the context of our energy requirements and the challenges of climate change.

A major issue that faces the international community today is climate change and the issue is critical for us as the steps that we will take will have to be intrinsically linked with our growth prospects and needs and the development aspirations of our people. Nationally we have taken several steps to improve energy efficiency and ensure sustainable growth. It is important to note that despite our accounting for 17% of the global population, our own green house gas emissions are currently only 4% of the global emissions. Even with 8-9% growth per annum our energy use has been growing at less than 4% per annum and therefore we welcome and we have welcomed the successful outcomes in Cancun on climate fund, technology mechanism adaptation framework and tropical forestry, the REDD+. We however believe that further work is required to strengthen the weak mitigation pledges by the developed countries, preventing unilateral trade actions in the name of climate change and sustenance of the dialogue on IPR as part of technology development and transfer.