Hamid Ansari releases book on India's foreign policy

New Delhi, Apr 13 (ANI): Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Monday released a book titled 'Challenges and Strategy:

Rethinking India's Foreign Policy'. The book, authored by former bureaucrat Rajiv Sikri, examines India's current and looming foreign policy challenges from a strategic and policy-oriented perspective.

It also analyses the long term factors and trends that should determine the country's foreign policy formulation.

On the occasion, Ansari said that in a changing world, foreign policy tactics have to remain flexible.

"The National Intelligence Council of the United States, in its scenario building for 2025, states that in the next ten years China and India are expected to achieve near parity with the US in two different areas: India in scientific and human capital and China in government receptivity to business innovations. We, therefore, have to be patient and diligent, work our way up, and not be overtly anxious to get there prematurely," he added.

Ansari opined that most foreign policy analysts seemed to overlook domestic factors and constraints.

"The pace of our progress would also depend on the speed at which we overcome domestic strives that retard our progress. These questions cannot be wished away; to do so successfully, we have to keep in mind and implement the basic principles of the Indian polity," he added. nsari proposed that India 'must play its role as conscience keeper of the world,' and do so by 'looking beyond the West and its troublesome neighbours like Pakistan and China and find its niche in the world.'

The Vice-President said the book has a number of interesting insights on economic diplomacy and energy security.

"The chapter on 'US and Nuclear Issues' offered on pages 185-188 is a perception somewhat at variance with the public picture," he added. (ANI)