The Hindu : National : Syria for active Indian role in West Asia

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Thursday, Aug 16, 2007
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Syria for active Indian role in West Asia

Sandeep Dikshit

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem

NEW DELHI: Syria wants India to play a more active role in stabilising the situation in West Asia, especially by leveraging its close relationship with the U.S.

Pointing out any adverse developments in the region would also impact on India’s economic health, visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem told newspersons on Tuesday night that, “India deserves to play a role in the international arena, particularly the Middle East. India can do a lot in this field.”

Desiring a political solution to the Arab conflict, the Minister said, “India should invest its relations with U.S. to convince it that peace and stability in Middle East serves interests of the region, including India.” Mr. Al-Moualem felt another route that India could take would be to utilise the Non-Aligned Movement forum to take the lead in furthering peace initiatives in the Arab world.

Syria, he felt, was of the view that India had retreated from the Arab world and the time had come for it to return to the region for resolving its problems.

The visiting Foreign Minister felt assured by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assertion in Parliament about India maintaining its independent foreign policy during his statement on the India-U.S. civil nuclear deal. “What will worry us is when we feel India has departed from independent foreign policy,” he added.

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