‘Drift in India's foreign policy': Congress demands debate in Parliament
Congress leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma said a 'recalibration in international diplomacy was the need of the hour', and it was necessary to 'reclaim India's stature and standing in the comity of nations'.
The party also took strong exception to India abstaining on the UN resolution on Gaza ceasefire, saying it was 'not just unfortunate, but a painful and unacceptable decision'.
Sharma's comments come two days after Leader of Opposition in LS Rahul Gandhi criticised India's current foreign policy following a meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Sharma also said the India-US trade agreement, talks for which are continuing, should be done keeping national interest foremost and no trade pact should be done under pressure.
'There's a matter of serious concern: that is a drift in our foreign policy — a visible decline of India's influence in the world and the very fact that there had been fundamental departures to the detriment of India's standing in the comity of nations at the United Nations,' Sharma said.
'We were and rightly so acknowledged as a pre-eminent power of South Asia, but nobody can say that today and it is for us to rethink on strategy and engage in a manner that despite challenges and complexities, India regains strength and standing in its own region,' he said.
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