But I certainly would like the Government to take initiative in calling a conference to develop some sort of collective self reliance among the non-alingned countries. This is a new form of non-aligned movement. It is not enough to have some sort of understanding of non-aligned principles in the political field, but there will have to be a growing economic co-operation for strengthening this self-reliance of all the non-aligned countries. This is the first priority in the non-aligned world today and in order to achieve that.
I would suggest, if at all, you are considering or talking of any conference or taking any initiative, you had better start, to start with, an Asian non-aligned conference excepting a few countries like China, Japan, South Korea and one or two other countries. Most of the other Asian countries are non-aligned countries. This is one of the advantages as far as we ‘are concerned. Therefore, we can certainly show some creative statesmanship in doing this thing. I would like to make one more suggestion.
I said already that there will be a pressure on the unity of the non-aligned world. So you will have to be more careful. How you do that, you will have to plan and for that matter I will have to make additional suggestion. Better look to the Policy Planning Cell in the Ministry. That is more important. Whether it is diplomatic side or area-wise side, it is quite all right. It is working normally quite good. But I think what we have neglected so far is the policy planning the intellectual input in framing out the options for the Foreign Minister. The Foreign Minister should have half a dozen options and he should be able to choose one of them; he should be able to anticipate things.
Sir, the policy planning cell of the Ministry of External Affairs is very much neglected. Government should carefully consider how it could be made more effective. I know it is not very easily done, merely recruiting so-called intellectuals and asking them to sit in the Ministry of External Affairs, that does not mean anything. Foreign Policy planning will have to be carefully considered. I would suggest that you go deeply into this matter and then carry on.
