There are problems of cost and efficiency, problems of management and organisation, problems of removing kinks and difficulties here and there. But there is no question of the enduring gains which Jawaharlalji's initiative twenty-odd years ago has brought about for us. If today we talk with a sense of pride and self-assurance, if we can talk of dispensing with external aid, it is because of the industrial base which Nehru had planned for and ushered in in cooperation with the various countries the world over. One has merely to refer to our steel and heavy engineering complex, of the strides we have made in the oil industry, of the sustained demand in East Europe for our traditional export items such as tea, jute and cotton textiles, of our new engineering exports, of our ventures in mining and fishing, to realise how much we owe to Nehru, how great has been the pay-off of his ideas.
Let me now refer briefly to our trade and payments position. We now find that, in the course of a swift twenty years, Eastern Europe has become our leading trade partner. We have evolved this growing trade relationship on the basis of complete equality and mutual self-interest. We have maximised our own economic gains even as the socialist countries have ensured the fullest satisfaction of their own economic interests. In this endeavour, therefore, there has been a reassertion of the principles governing free international economic relationships, namely, that if each nation seeks to maximise her own economic interest through trade, the culmination is the maximum good for everyone. Panditji had the perspicacity to gauge that you cannot preach liberal economic philosophy and yet refuse to enlarge the scope and volume of international trade. The solution of this country's economic problems, he had no doubt in his mind, lay in universalising international relationships. While leaders of men in other countries were hesitant, Panditji became the bridgebuilder. He forged the opening to East Europe and the socialist countries. Today, there is no dearth of followers whether in West Europe or further beyond.
The socialist countries have made their contribution to our moving nearer to the ultimate objective of a faster, equitable, self-reliant growth, I would hope that in your discussions you will have the opportunity to analyse in some depth the outstanding problems and issues in the evolving relationships between us and them. In the course of your analysis, it is inevitable that you will, time and again, come back to reviewing and reinterpreting many of Nehru's messages and thoughts. That is as it should be. And that, according to me, would also be the best way of commemorating this great man's anniversary.
