Speech by Minister of External Affairs, Shri Pranab Mukherjee at the 42nd Professional Course for Foreign Diplomats

I am delighted to be here at the Valedictory Dinner of the Foreign Service Institute. I would like to take the opportunity to greet the newest members of the Institute, the IFS Probationers of the 2006 batch who have recently joined, as well as the IFS Probationers of the 2005 batch, who have finished their training at the Institute and are currently doing their attachment with various Divisions of the Ministry. This evening, I am also particularly glad to be among those young diplomats from friendly countries who have been attending the Professional Course for Foreign Diplomats conducted by the FSI during the last six weeks. Being in training can sometimes feel like being back at school, with all its regimentation. Nevertheless, I hope our guests from overseas have found the Professional Course productive and useful in equipping them to better handle the external relations of their respective Countries. I also trust that their stay in India, though short, was enjoyable.

Representing one’s country overseas is a great honour, as the distinguished representatives of the diplomatic corps here will testify, it is an honour that some of the trainees here may have already had and that others are about to have bestowed upon them. The senior diplomats gathered here would also be familiar with how Sir Ernest Satow, the author of probably the most used guide to diplomatic practice defined the task of diplomats. He noted more than a century ago that tact to the conduct of official relations between the governments of independent states”.

Those of you about to embark on a diplomatic career would do well to carefully parse that simple statement, because in today’s world, diplomacy may not be the business of diplomats alone, In a world marked by intense economics and commercial linkages, a phenomenon that has come to be known as globalization, diplomacy is also the business of large global businesses. There are today transnational corporations whose annual turnover exceeds the GNP of a fair number of countries. These corporations are increasingly having an impact on international diplomacy in fields ranging from trade and tariffs to development and climate change. Some years ago the traditional diplomat would have looked askance at the presence of business delegations, social scientists or economists at diplomatic gatherings. Today, you will have to account for the presence of all these actors jostling for the same space in which you are going to be doing your work.. Finding a cooperative model through which to achieve national and international welfare will therefore be an additional challenge for all of you as you get down to the business of diplomacy.

The other major change in diplomacy from the era that Satow described is in he arena of technology. While the advance in technology may have rendered aspects of the job easier, they have also created attendant difficulties. As the distinguished ambassadors gathered here tonight will tell you, there are not many among them who have not been awoken in the middle of the night with a telephone call from headquarters and with their parent foreign office insisting on a report on the breaking news of the moment- first thing in he morning. Of course, getting the report out is probably the easier part. More difficult is to have to forego that morning’s game of golf!!!

But on a more serious note, the media explosion and the 24 hour news cycle mean the tomorrow’s diplomats need to be equally dept at handling information as well as information overload. Today, everyone has access to unfolding news in real time. With some exceptions getting information is not the problem; making sense of what you get, which is sometimes too much, is more at issue. Especially when serving overseas, you are expected to provide that additional insight that can make all the difference to policy formulation. I urge the trainees here tonight to focus especially on this aspect.

I also hope that this course that has just concluded has been of some help in not only sharpening your skills, but also in familiarizing you with India’s strategic perspectives and priorities. This is a country moulded by its civilizational memory, a sense of geography, a composite culture and, naturally, geopolitical realities.

Through the centuries, Indian society has been an open system, receiving and assimilating major influences from outside its geographical boundaries, like Islam and Christianity, while disseminating its composite cultural influences outward and building abiding links with societies from the Middle-East to South East Asia. In this outward dissemination, however, we however sought to export own ideologies. Many of our traditional links were disturbed by colonialism and Partition and their restoration was then delayed by the onset of the Cold War. In recent years however, driven by an impressive economic performance, India has at once managed to revive its traditional linkages as well as build completely new ones all over the world. Our future success, however, depends on our being able to secure a regional and global environment that protects our national security and also enables us to integrate with the global economy. Let me quickly outline to you a few of our priorities in this endeavour.

Our foremost priority is countering terrorism. While terrorism is perpetrated by non state actors in most parts of the world, in India, militants and terrorists are also sponsored and aided by agencies from across India’s borders.

Secondly, India finds itself in an arc where more than one actor has been involved in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This has assumed particularly dangerous proportions, given the possibility of linkages such proliferation and terrorism.

Thirdly, the periodic instability in the political fabric of states in India’s neighbourhood is a source of great anxiety. As an advocate of greater regional integration and connectivity, India has stakes in the political and economic well being of its neighbours and seeks their cooperation to build and area of shared prosperity in South Asia.

Fourthly, the high growth trajectory of our economy will inevitably produce a matching curve for energy demand. In this context, energy security and the security of sea lanes of communication, on which India’s trade is dependent, assume great significance.

In order to meet these multiple challenges, India has sought on focus on ensuring stability and peace in its neighbourhood, developing friendly and mutually beneficial ties in its extended neighbourhood like west, Central and Southeast Asia, and establishing strategic partnerships with all the major actors in the world, particularly the United States, European Union, Russia, china and Japan. At the same time we are developing ties of great vitality and mutual benefit with many countries in Africa and Latin America.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to congratulation the foreign participant in this training course on their successful completion of the course. Again, I hope they found the programme useful. This programme is one small way for us to express our commitment to technical and developmental cooperation with friendly to technical and developmental cooperation with friendly countries. I wish the participants success in all their endeavors. I also take this opportunity to convey through you our greetings and good wishes to your respective countries and people.

Thank You.