NEW DELHI: Seasoned Congress politician S.M. Krishna took over as India’s new foreign minister on Saturday and said it would be his endeavour to foster regional peace to boost shared economic benefits. He also made a long forgotten reference in a positive vein to the non-aligned movement.

‘Our primary objective is to sustain high rates of economic growth in the range of 9 to 10 per cent during the coming decades. For that, we require peace and tranquillity in our extended neighbourhood and a supportive international environment,’ the US-educated Mr Krishna, a former chief minister of Karnataka, said in a statement.

Separately, he told reporters in response to a question that he was ready to extend his hand of friendship to Pakistan provided it dismantled what New Delhi calls the terror infrastructure on its soil.

‘We can change our friends, but not our neighbours,’ Mr Krishna said on his first day in office. ‘In general, we desire to live with all our neighbours in peace and to create a tension-free situation with all our neighbours.’
 
‘We stand ready to extend our hand of partnership to Pakistan, if they take determined and credible action to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism operating from their territory.’

He skirted reacting to official comments from Washington to the effect that India and Pakistan were sharing vital intelligence to boost the war against terror. India is due to get the first of its three AWACs from Israel on Sunday to seriously deepen its intelligence gathering capacity over the region.

What Mr Krishna did not comment on was just as significant as what he did say. He was asked if he thought it was a good time for India to pull back troops from the border with Pakistan. Or, what did he think about America increasing aid for Pakistan without making it conditional on stopping cross border terrorism against India?

In what was his first policy statement, Mr Krishna confined himself to his brief. He would accord highest priority to strengthen India’s political, economic and cultural relations with its neighbours and he looked forward to visiting them soon.  It was not clear if it implied a visit to Pakistan was also likely.

To strengthen India’s ‘policy and developmental options’ he would consolidate further existing strategic partnership with major powers like the US, Russia, China, Japan and the EU.

‘Our strong and traditional ties with countries in Africa, West Asia and Latin America will be furthered and our Look East Policy strengthened. I look forward to these challenging tasks in the pursuit of India’s non-aligned foreign policy,’ he said.

Mr Krishna takes over the reins from Pranab Mukherjee who has been assigned the finance ministry. P. Chidambaram keeps the home ministry and A.K. Antony retains defence.