Pointing out that many of the troubling problems confronting the nations of the world are neutral to geography and size, Vice-President Hamid Ansari on Sunday called for addressing the cross-boundary issues through international cooperation.
New Delhi, Sept 23 : Pointing out that many of the troubling problems confronting the nations of the world are neutral to geography and size, Vice-President Hamid Ansari on Sunday called for addressing the cross-boundary issues through international cooperation.
Inaugurating the 27th Small Countries Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) here, Ansari said issues such as food and water security, environmentally sustainable development, global pandemics such as bird flu and HIV/AIDS, transnational terrorism, natural disasters such as cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis, energy security, and climate change "need to be addressed through regional and international cooperation."
"It is of paramount importance that small states have full say as equal members in addressing such pressing issues that vitally impact on them," he added.
Ansari said that the global agenda, mercifully, is not all preventive and has many positive dimensions. "These relate to sustainable development, which, in the context of small countries, necessarily involves multi-pronged strategies that include international assistance in terms of human and material resources."
Such strategies must focus on economic resilience that calls for capacity building, economic diversification and diversifying the trade basket to reduce dependence on imported goods and increase the range of goods and services exports, he said.
He went on to say that the Commonwealth, with its huge membership, has within its fold resources that ought to be harnessed to cater to such requirements, adding, "India, I am happy to say, has always responded positively to these."
He said that in the context of a country's size, 'small' is a comparative rather than an absolute concept. And, each country has its own set of concerns and vulnerabilities arising from the interplay of economic, environmental and social factors.
Underlining that this is more pronounced in the context of small countries as they have limited resources and limited capacity to withstand and manage adversity and crises, Ansari told the Parliamentarians of small countries that they have a "special responsibility" to equip themselves with the knowledge base and skill sets relevant to their concerns.
ANI