India won146;t be a lackey: PM

Even as the US strides across the globe like a unipolar colossus after Iraq, it is actually a multipolar world in which India will faithfull...

Even as the US strides across the globe like a unipolar colossus after Iraq, it is actually a multipolar world in which India will faithfully play its role by restoring the multilateral strengths of the UN, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee said at the end of his eight-day tour in France here today.

The PM outlined the parameters of India8217;s foreign policy, which has been a subject of significant confusion in recent months. 8216;8216;India will never become a lackey of even the most powerful country in the world,8217;8217; he said. Without referring to the US, he added,8216;8216;India8217;s approach has always been independent. We believe that there is now even greater need for more independent-minded nations to come together again.8217;8217;

But before the neo-conservatives in New Delhi took offence to the PM8217;s seemingly non-aligned pronouncements, analysts here pointed out that he was not taking an ideological stand. They said Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal would soon be going to the US on July 1, where he would have talks with the Bush administration also on nuclear and space issues.

There was no question of any 8216;8216;anti-Americanism8217;8217; in the directions as outlined by the PM, they said, adding New Delhi would be governed by 8216;8216;pragmatism8217;8217;.

Vajpayee8217;s meeting with the Permanent-Five leaders in St Petersburg seems to have given him a good picture not only of international tensions in the post-Iraq world order between 8216;8216;France, Russia and the US8217;8217; as well as how they have now decided to work much more closely together 8212; but also a sense of how world leaders look at the India-Pakistan question.

He pointed out that all the world leaders, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, had appreciated his third peace initiative with Pakistan. 8216;8216;Earlier, they would only ask about the tension in South Asia and the possibility of nuclear conflict in our region,8217;8217; he said.

The PM said in his meeting with Hu, the contentious border issue between India and China came up. He said he was keen on meeting the new Chinese leader and was pleased to see that he reciprocated his sentiment. The number of similarities between India and China far outdo the differences, Hu told Vajpayee. 8216;8216;The Chinese President said he was greatly looking forward to my visit,8217;8217; he said.

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Significantly, the PM said, Hu also told him that China was not particularly happy about the manner in which the UN had been marginalised in recent months and decisions taken outside its mandate. Both agreed that the power and strength of the UN must be restored, Vajpayee said.

But the PM8217;s press conference was really dominated by his sense that most nations, rich and poor, were straining at the leash that the US had thrown around the world, an ugly manifestation of which was the Iraq war. While Vajpayee did not elaborate on the awful consequences of the war, he did stress that India would not send troops to that country if they had to serve under US command.

He pointed out that New Delhi had asked for several clarifications from several places, including the UN. 8216;8216;What was the force going to be used for? To maintain law and order, to keep the peace or for other tasks? How many days will they stay there? What is the road map? Under whose command will they operate?8217;8217; Vajpayee wanted to know. He pointed out that India had sent its ambassador B.B. Tyagi back to Baghdad, to precisely get a better sense of the conditions that prevailed there.

The PM had special praise for French President Jacques Chirac. He said Chirac had the vision to get the developing world as well as the developed world in an enlarged G-22 summit at Evian, and that was the way to the future. So far, the world had been divided into two blocs, the rich and the poor, and clearly that experiment had not worked.