Have faith in India, best yet to come: Manmohan

NEW DELHI: "India is on the move. I invite you to be partners in India's progress," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told top strategic experts from a Britain-based think tank who are here to take part in a seminar that will discuss India' & chr(39) & 's rise as a global power. 

"I invite you to have faith in India. India has followed a successful strategy of reintegrating into world economy," Manmohan Singh told experts from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the influential international think tank, at his 7 Race Course residence. 
 
"Globalization is both a challenge and an opportunity, and India would like to be an active participant in the processes of globalisation," he said.  
 
"India is more globally integrated and is confident about its future. I invite you to be in India and stay invested, because for India the best is yet to come," he said while stressing on New Delhi's commitment to economic reforms and liberalization.

Top strategic experts, politicians, diplomats and policymakers from different countries are participating in a three-day seminar, which began here on Friday, to discuss India's emergence as an economic giant and a global power and its consequences for a changing global order.

India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt will be among those who will address the seminar.
 
"The economic rise of India is becoming an international truism. We are here to discuss the implications of the rise of India for itself and the world," said John Chipman, director-general and chief executive of the IISS.

"India has a huge variety of inventive strategic thinkers. But as India rises, it needs to evolve a strategic culture," Chipman said at the beginning of the seminar organized by the IISC and the Citi financial group.  
  
"As India moves from a position of non-alignment to multiple alignments, there should be more discussion with the elite and the people on opportunities before India and liabilities it may have to shoulder in the international system," he said.
 
Chipman, however, did not envisage conflict or rivalry between India and China, and said that this century is characterized by the simultaneous rise of India and China. 

"When the political spotlight is placed on a country, the more responsibilities are placed on that power," he said.

"When India 's prominence is finalized in the international system (a seat in the UN Security Council), then some of India's international engagements may be looked at in a more critical manner," he said.