With relations with China taking a beating over the IAS officers’ visit fiasco, Defence Minister AK Antony made little reference to the Asian giant during his speech at the sixth Asian Security Conference in Singapore on Saturday. In his 20 minute address at the start of a plenary session on “China and India: Building International Stability”, the Defence Minister said little about China other than “our relations have undergone a significant improvement” and that the two countries were committed to settling bilateral issue in a “fair and transparent” manner. Antony, who is on his first foreign tour after taking over as Defence Minister, came down strongly on Pakistan saying that “more imaginative approaches” were required to resolve the long standing Jammu and Kashmir issue. He said while composite dialogue had changed India-Pakistan ties for the better, it was imperative for Pakistan to stop supporting cross-border terrorism and deliver on its commitment of not supporting terrorism from “territory under its control”. The minister said India was committed to strengthening regional stability and that the emergence of a stable and moderate Pakistan was of crucial importance to India. “With all our neighbours we are prepared to go the extra mile to encourage greater regional cooperation for mutual benefit. In Afghanistan, India has committed more than $750 million towards reconstruction and 3,500 Indians are participating in such programmes there,” Antony said at the security conference which was attended by senior officials and minister from ASEAN countries, China, Japan, US, UK, France, Germany and other countries.
