'India is a decisive force in Asia, whichever way the whole continent is tilted, it will tilt'

 Bhopal:

Union Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar, while describing India as a decisive power in Asia, said that India will lean in the same direction as it will tilt this continent. The world cannot ignore our role in Asia. Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh Union Minister of State for External Affairs Akbar will join the tricolor yatra here in the capital on Sunday.

Giving a lecture on 'India's Growing Dominance and Challenges in Asia' organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Studies Center, Madhya Pradesh, Akbar said, 'I consider our country as a decisive force in Asia. We are a decisive force that will tilt this continent in the same direction we tilt it. Neither this continent nor the world can ignore our role in this.

Showing the world map hanging in the program, he said that he considers India as a decisive power in Asia because on the one hand we have countries like China, Japan, Taiwan in the east. All these countries want economic growth of their country and today they are on the path of development, while from the western countries of India. The heat of terrorism is coming and someone in these countries is somehow affected by war or terrorism. He said that the role of India is very important, if India stops terrorism at its borders by not allowing it to spread, then it will be of great benefit to the world and India.

Akbar said that war cannot be the solution to any problem and it is also a fact that whichever country started the war has never won it. Praising PM Modi's 'Look East' policy, the Minister of State for External Affairs said that the Prime Minister took a decisive turn in our policy, as all the countries of the East are progressing today. So we have to join them in this promotion.

Recalling the statement of Prime Minister Modi that 70 years after the independence of the country, the era of eradication of poverty has now passed and now is the time to eradicate poverty, Akbar said that we have a big challenge before us to eradicate poverty from the country. However, he said that at the time of independence, where 70 per cent of the people in the country were below the poverty line today, after 70 years of independence, about 35 percent of the people are below the poverty line. "People ask that if it takes 70 years for the country to bring the poverty level to 35 percent, it will take another 70 years to end it, but we say, 'We don't have time now and we have to end it in 10 years. And no one should have any doubt about it. '