Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee performed a key role in shaping India’s foreign policy and “introduced corrections, some bold and some others nuanced,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said here on Friday.
Paying rich tributes to Vajpayee, the minister also said the then prime minister played a transformational role in fashioning foreign policy that led to a new beginning in ties with the United States.
Making these observations in his opening remarks at the maiden Atal Bihari Vajpayee memorial lecture, Jaishankar said he also “introduced corrections, some bold and others more nuanced,” in a range of national security and foreign policy issues.
Highlighting some of the major contributions by the former prime minister, Jaishankar said “Atalji’s vision of India-US cooperation has been advanced, particularly in recent years, by the leadership and commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Overcoming the hesitations of history, we are today focused on addressing contemporary challenges and emerging opportunities.”
He also said “This vision led to a new beginning with the United States that has since been developed by successive governments on both sides. It required us, as a nation, to overcome difficult moments and continuing concerns. Only someone with Atalji’s enormous self-assurance could, in the early days, have visualised how natural this partnership would become.”
At the same time, India’s relationship with Russia has remained steady partly due to Vajpayee’s endeavours, Jaishankar said. India’s principled approach of engaging China on the “basis of mutual respect and mutual sensitivity” too reflects Vajpayee’s thinking, he added.
On ties with countries in the neighbourhood, the minister said Vajpayee “radiated goodwill and friendship, while being clear that terrorism and trust could not coexist.”
Vajpayee could “finesse difficult issues” while warmly reaching out across regions and continents, he said, pointing to the country’s relations with the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and with countries in Europe, Africa and Latin America. And most notably, he embraced the Indian diaspora in a way that had no parallel till then, Jaishankar said.