India has independent links with US, China: Khurshid

NEW DELHI, Nov 20:
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has said India was not and would not be part of “anybody’s scheme of things” and highlighted India’s role in the BRICS Forum in view of the changing equations in a multi-polar world.
He, however, said nothing would prevent India’s rapid engagement with China.
He was commenting on the new impetus in Sino-Indian  ties.
“This is the reflection of a current, contemporary  situation in which there are different expectations from  India, but still expectations of leadership. And, we are  trying to fulfill those,” Mr Khurshid said in an interview  to a Singapore think tank.
Mr Khurshid said people speculated about US position on  pivot, on re-balancing towards Asia and there were   methodologies of and connectivity that this part of the  world had with China despite differences on certain  dimensions.
“But we are, I think, lucky in that our position is that  we will not be part of anybody else’s scheme of things and, therefore, we are not,” he added.
He said the US was eager to extricate itself from military  conflicts in West Asia and deploy attention to Asia where,  as US President Barack Obama put it, “the action’s going to  be.”
Many see the American Asia pivot as a bid to contain China, according to The BRICSPOST.
The External Affairs Minister had advocated China’s  entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) because, that  allowed China to participate in a larger frame of things in  which India was a willing partner.
Mr Khurshid described as “incremental” the new Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) signed with China during Prime  Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing last month.
“In parallel, we are actually talking in the Special  Representatives forum. We have done 16 rounds. We are talking  about the basic principles followed by the basic format by  which we will be able to find a resolution. We know that it  can’t be done in a hurry,” he said, adding that China also  knew it could not be done in a hurry.
The Minister said New Delhi had independent ties with  China and the US, dismissing any suggestion of linkage.
“We will never be allies of the US. We will be friends,  strategic partners, not allies. And similarly we will be  strategic partners with China. Hopefully, we will become  friends with China when all our issues are resolved. We have  a very good working relationship with them, but we have things  to resolve with them,” he added.
He said India provided intrinsic and important link between  the developing and the developed world and India’s expectation  was reflected in people supporting India for a permanent seat  in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).  (UNI)

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