‘Relation with old friends need to be bolstered’

Observing that ‘‘challenges’’ are there in the immediate neighbourhood, the newly-appointed Foreign Secretary Shashank t...

Observing that ‘‘challenges’’ are there in the immediate neighbourhood, the newly-appointed Foreign Secretary Shashank today underpinned the importance of going ahead ‘‘with confidence-building measures’’ for better economic cooperation.

Soon after taking charge of the key slot, 59-year-old Shashank, a seasoned career diplomat who succeeds Kanwal Sibal, also spoke on building Asian economic unity.

‘‘Of course, there are challenges in the immediate neighbourhood to go ahead with the confidence-building measures for economic cooperation and for moving towards PTA (preferential trading arrangement) and FTA (free trade agreement) type of programmes which have been prepared for us,’’ he said.

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A 1966-batch IFS officer, Shashank, who will have an eight-month tenure till July 2004, stressed on cooperation with African and Latin American countries besides the EU .

‘‘We have important relations with traditional friends and we have to strengthen them in whatever manner we can,’’ he said at his South Block office.

‘‘I have certain responsibilities which I hope to discharge to the best of my abilities especially with the help of my colleagues who have been with me in my postings abroad as well as in the ministry,’’ he said.

Engaging him would be Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s visit to Nigeria for the Commonwealth summit starting from December four. Shashank, who has served in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad from 1982 to 1986, will also find himself in the midst of preparatory work leading upto the SAARC summit in the Pakistan Capital in January first week.