In his first media interaction, Krishna, a former chief minister of Karnataka state, said India wants to have friendly and peaceful relations with its neighbours as "it is essential for its main goal of achieving the economic growth rate of 9 to 10 per cent".

"We cannot change our neighbours we have to live with it… Generally, we would like to live in peace with neighbours. That has been our desire and we are pursuing that", the Minister said echoing what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told Pakistan five years ago.

answering a question, Krishna urged Colombo to address the "root cause" of the ethnic conflict by effective devolution of powers to all communities in the island nation.  He promised that India would work with the people and government of Sri Lanka to ‘provide relief to those affected by the tragic conflict and ‘to rapidly rehabilitate’ those who have been displaced bringing normalcy to their lives as soon as possible.

Krishna  described the terror infrastructure in Pakistan as a ‘stumbling block’ in improvement of bilateral ties and said "It is for Pakistan to take necessary steps (to dismantle terror infrastructure) so that all of us can live in peace".

Text of SM Krishna’s statement:

"I am deeply honoured to assume charge of the high office of the Minister of External Affairs. We are at a moment in history when the world situation is rapidly changing and India, as a responsible power, must engage actively with the world. I am deeply conscious of the opportunities available to us and the difficulties that we face as we continue to pursue our independent foreign policy of peace and development, and strengthen our strategic autonomy.

In the coming years under the stewardship of Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh, it will be my endeavour to further advance our interest in the international arena. Our primary objective is to sustain high rates of economic growth in the range of 9 to 10% during the coming decades. For that, we require peace and tranquility in our extended neighbourhood and a supportive international environment.

I accord highest priority to strengthen our political, economic and cultural relations with our neighbours and look forward to visiting them soon.

To strengthen our policy and developmental options we will consolidate further our existing strategic partnership with major powers like USA, Russia, China, Japan and 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.

Transcript of Brief Q-A Session

Question: Since the Sri Lankan claims that the ethnic war is over in Northern Sri Lankan, now India has a most significant role to play to protect the rights and create basic infrastructure for the affected people. What kind of plan the Government of India is having in addition to providing regular relief material?

SM Krishna: India will work with the people and Government of Sri Lanka to provide relief to those effected by the tragic conflict, as also to rapidly rehabilitate all those who have been displaced in order to bring their lives to normalcy as soon as possible.

With the conventional conflict in Sri Lanka coming to an end, this is the moment when the root causes of conflict in Sri Lanka can be addressed. This would include political steps towards the effective devolution of power within the Sri Lankan Constitution so that Sri Lankans of all communities, including the Tamils, can feel at home and lead lives of dignity of their own free will.

Question: This is on Pakistan. Do you think it is a good time for India to pull back troops from the border? What do you think about America increasing aid for Pakistan without making it conditional on stopping cross border terrorism against India?

Krishna: We can change our friends, but not our neighbours. 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 there territory.