Sunday, December 18, 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
Summit paves way for productive partnerships
12 December 2005
India looking forward to comprehensive engagement with participants in new grouping
By N. Parthasarathi Indian ambassador to Korea
The inaugural East Asia Summit being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Dec. 14, is in more ways than one a historic event.
The East Asia Summit brings together countries with increasing inter-linkages and growing interdependence in a region that has emerged, and is likely to remain an increasingly important area of growth and influence globally.
The summit would be an occasion for the leaders of participating countries to articulate a strategic and responsible vision for the future of the region in the world.
India has been invited to the First East Asia Summit. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will be participating in the summit. The idea of an East Asian Summit is in consonance with India's own long term perspective of development of the Asian region. The Prime Minister has already proposed in the 3rd India-ASEAN Summit held in Vientiane that the coming together of the East Asian countries would be an anchor of stability and prosperity for the region and beyond. It would constitute an arc of advantage across which there would be large scale movement of people, capital, ideas and creativity.
India's foreign policy aims at a comprehensive, productive, meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship with all countries in the world. In particular, in the past decade, India has been rapidly developing multifaceted relations and cooperation with ASEAN as well as with Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, in what is now being termed as India's 'extended neighborhood.'
There is tremendous scope for this engagement to deepen and strengthen existing areas of cooperation and explore new vistas.
India's growing role in political and economic spheres in the region and the world is gaining increasing recognition. The participation of India in the East Asia Summit is an indication of this growing role of India.
India is now actively engaged in the world economy and is playing a very proactive role in the World Trade Organization. We have concluded free trade agreements in SAARC, with Singapore and Thailand. There is optimism that in the next few years, we would see considerable increase in economic cooperation in Asia covering all major Asian economies and extending to Australia and New Zealand.
India's "Look East Policy" is now over a decade old. The fact that successive governments in India continued with these policies shows the extent of consensus there is within India of the validity and importance of this policy. India has been participating at summit level with ASEAN countries since 2002. The partnership will help in exploiting the synergies and complementarities between India and ASEAN.
India is a microcosm of the globe because of its sub-continental size and the population accounting for nearly one sixth of humanity. India has shown to the world that it is conscious of its responsibilities and there is greater understanding of India's security and strategic interests. India is the world's largest democracy and is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Areas of strength in our economy are not confined to IT and biotechnology. India has entered into its second phase of liberalization, a phase of consolidation backed by strong domestic consensus. India believes that it is well placed to both contribute to globalization as well as reap its benefits. India's constructive contribution to the globalization process is well recognized.
By participating in the First East Asia Summit, India looks forward to comprehensive engagement with member countries. Our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had the foresight to prophesize, the 'emergence of Asia in world affairs will be a powerful influence for world peace.' The East Asia Summit is a major step forward in realizing this prophecy.
We are optimistic and confident the First East Asia Summit will pave the way for productive and constructive long-term partnerships in the region.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Philosopher envoy working hard for closer ties
December 5th 2005
India's current ambassador has only been in the job for just 2-1/2 months, but he's been extra busy showing visiting delegations around and meeting local companies and government officials so he can push relations to an even higher level.
"Korea is very important in the region and getting more important, and so is India. What is fantastic in our relations is the way they are growing. It is like being in the right place at the right time," N. Parthasarathi said in an interview with The Korea Herald.
Exuding excitement and energy, the 51 year-old envoy openly discussed how he changed careers, his philosophy about Indian society and religion, and his plans and hopes on bringing together two opposite sides of Asia.
Looking to improve relations between India and South Korea, Parthasarathi is looking into every angle.
"We just had a cultural dance performance. Our president will be coming in the next few months... ministers are coming. We are going to develop tourism. We are increasing the capacity to issue more visas. Right now we issue 50,000 visas to Koreans every year," he said.
Both countries share good political relations. In terms of commerce, there are huge investments underway, such as a 12.4 trillion won mining and production plant in the northeastern state of Orissa which will output an estimated 12 million tons of steel annually.
"It's a mind boggling amount. It's an old state with an old steel mill. It's an area with lots of iron and nearby there's a port," he said.
He meets regularly with so many industry leaders and chambers of commerce and others dealing with economy and trade that he's fast becoming an expert in Korean commerce and the political system.
On the cultural side, Parthasarathi is arranging a Buddhist exhibition with special artifacts from India. "We also want to host an India week with lots of events," he said.
"There is one guy who is interested in doing something to improve relations" is the message he repeats over and over, saying he feels the key to promoting relations is by creating friendships among both peoples.
Married for 26 years with two daughters, Parthasarathi started off as an engineer 30 years ago before being advised by friends to join the Foreign Service.
"In engineering the field is narrow but the Foreign Service gives you a broad canvas. It also gives you the freedom to identify the areas which are in your country's interest so you can do a lot. For example, we deal with small projects to a giant steel mill; it's (POSCO deal) a massive project. I'm trying to facilitate that. So it gives a fantastic opportunity to do a lot and I've never regretted it (switching careers)."
So, is it all work and no play? Not by a long shot - Parthasarathi enjoys golf, playing bridge and writing novels.
He wrote a thriller, in the style of Sydney Sheldon and Dan Brown, which is available at www.amazon.com.
"It's a real thriller. I mixed everything in it," he said. "It's set in India and Pakistan. It's a fast-reading book. When reading it, you get to learn as well as read a good story."
Titled "The Reluctant Assassin," it is a story about a boy from a simple background born in India whose mother lives in India while his father is in Pakistan. The boy grows up in India and flees to neighboring Pakistan to avoid the police. Once there he is trained as a terrorist and eventually gets into politics.
"It's got everything, assassinations, terrorism plots, religions, feudalism," Parthasarathi said.
But today's India is anything but fictional. That country is exploding in its development of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and knowledge-based technologies.
"The requirement for such professionals will mean a shortage in the coming years, even in India," he said. "Not only because people are leaving, it's because the growth is progressing so fast that we are not able to meet the requirements."
Parthasarathi explained that India is showing fantastic growth, moving along swiftly from a developing country toward an industrialized country with a momentum that will make it one of the world's leading economies within the next 15 years.
"The only problem we are facing is that our population is large. We have more than a billion people," he said.
He said India was virtually a continent, with every state different in terms of culture, language and script. He noted there are 16 officially recognized languages in India and every religion is present within its borders.
"Yet it's not a melting pot. It's not like a soup where all the ingredients have merged to form one identity. It's like a salad bowl which is also a beautiful dish but each ingredient usually maintains its own characteristic. Put them together and they work together and that is India," he said.
A Hindi by birth, Parthasarathi explained that in India there are thousands of gods and more being created all the time. For example a few years ago there was no deity named Santoshi Ma but someone made a film and said this is a goddess and now there are millions of followers.
"We try to understand our surroundings and adapt ourselves and gather material wealth and try to do everything but the question is how much time have we spent to understand ourselves.
"If we don't understand what is the point of making so much money, where does it take us. We used to be comfortable in the suburb areas then moved to the cities to work for five days just to run away to our weekend home. But the funny thing is that you had it already!" he said jokingly.
(yoav@heraldm.com)
By Yoav Cerralbono 2005.12.05
India's current ambassador has only been in the job for just 2-1/2 months, but he's been extra busy showing visiting delegations around and meeting local companies and government officials so he can push relations to an even higher level.
"Korea is very important in the region and getting more important, and so is India. What is fantastic in our relations is the way they are growing. It is like being in the right place at the right time," N. Parthasarathi said in an interview with The Korea Herald.
Exuding excitement and energy, the 51 year-old envoy openly discussed how he changed careers, his philosophy about Indian society and religion, and his plans and hopes on bringing together two opposite sides of Asia.
Looking to improve relations between India and South Korea, Parthasarathi is looking into every angle.
"We just had a cultural dance performance. Our president will be coming in the next few months... ministers are coming. We are going to develop tourism. We are increasing the capacity to issue more visas. Right now we issue 50,000 visas to Koreans every year," he said.
Both countries share good political relations. In terms of commerce, there are huge investments underway, such as a 12.4 trillion won mining and production plant in the northeastern state of Orissa which will output an estimated 12 million tons of steel annually.
"It's a mind boggling amount. It's an old state with an old steel mill. It's an area with lots of iron and nearby there's a port," he said.
He meets regularly with so many industry leaders and chambers of commerce and others dealing with economy and trade that he's fast becoming an expert in Korean commerce and the political system.
On the cultural side, Parthasarathi is arranging a Buddhist exhibition with special artifacts from India. "We also want to host an India week with lots of events," he said.
"There is one guy who is interested in doing something to improve relations" is the message he repeats over and over, saying he feels the key to promoting relations is by creating friendships among both peoples.
Married for 26 years with two daughters, Parthasarathi started off as an engineer 30 years ago before being advised by friends to join the Foreign Service.
"In engineering the field is narrow but the Foreign Service gives you a broad canvas. It also gives you the freedom to identify the areas which are in your country's interest so you can do a lot. For example, we deal with small projects to a giant steel mill; it's (POSCO deal) a massive project. I'm trying to facilitate that. So it gives a fantastic opportunity to do a lot and I've never regretted it (switching careers)."
So, is it all work and no play? Not by a long shot - Parthasarathi enjoys golf, playing bridge and writing novels.
He wrote a thriller, in the style of Sydney Sheldon and Dan Brown, which is available at www.amazon.com.
"It's a real thriller. I mixed everything in it," he said. "It's set in India and Pakistan. It's a fast-reading book. When reading it, you get to learn as well as read a good story."
Titled "The Reluctant Assassin," it is a story about a boy from a simple background born in India whose mother lives in India while his father is in Pakistan. The boy grows up in India and flees to neighboring Pakistan to avoid the police. Once there he is trained as a terrorist and eventually gets into politics.
"It's got everything, assassinations, terrorism plots, religions, feudalism," Parthasarathi said.
But today's India is anything but fictional. That country is exploding in its development of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and knowledge-based technologies.
"The requirement for such professionals will mean a shortage in the coming years, even in India," he said. "Not only because people are leaving, it's because the growth is progressing so fast that we are not able to meet the requirements."
Parthasarathi explained that India is showing fantastic growth, moving along swiftly from a developing country toward an industrialized country with a momentum that will make it one of the world's leading economies within the next 15 years.
"The only problem we are facing is that our population is large. We have more than a billion people," he said.
He said India was virtually a continent, with every state different in terms of culture, language and script. He noted there are 16 officially recognized languages in India and every religion is present within its borders.
"Yet it's not a melting pot. It's not like a soup where all the ingredients have merged to form one identity. It's like a salad bowl which is also a beautiful dish but each ingredient usually maintains its own characteristic. Put them together and they work together and that is India," he said.
A Hindi by birth, Parthasarathi explained that in India there are thousands of gods and more being created all the time. For example a few years ago there was no deity named Santoshi Ma but someone made a film and said this is a goddess and now there are millions of followers.
"We try to understand our surroundings and adapt ourselves and gather material wealth and try to do everything but the question is how much time have we spent to understand ourselves.
"If we don't understand what is the point of making so much money, where does it take us. We used to be comfortable in the suburb areas then moved to the cities to work for five days just to run away to our weekend home. But the funny thing is that you had it already!" he said jokingly.
(yoav@heraldm.com)
By Yoav Cerralbono 2005.12.05
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