The series India’s Foreign Relations, showcasing, as the name implies,
documents on India’s foreign relations is published annually. Since its launch
in 2005, volumes for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 have made their
appearance. The present is, therefore, the 6th in the series. It is published
in cooperation with the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External
Affairs, Government of India.

A look at the Contents would show that the debate on India – US Civil
Nuclear Energy Cooperation Agreement dominated the foreign policy
discourse during the year. The position taken by the Left Parties on the
subject was an important element in this debate. Since the Left Parties
provide outside support to the Government in Parliament, their stand on
this vital policy matter, impacted the domestic politics of the country. The
Bharatiya Janata Party, as the principal opposition party and the party which
initiated the process of strategic cooperation with the United States when it
was in power, under the innocuous heading “Next Step in the Strategic
Partnership” also found fault with the proposed agreement on several
counts. To give a comprehensive picture of the developments during the
year, it became necessary, therefore, to deviate from the past practice of
including only the official documents in the compendiums in this series. As
would be observed, the statements and resolutions of the Left Parties and
the BJP on the subject have been given a place in the Appendix attached
to Section-II on Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation. To complete the picture,
editorials in the national newspapers and views of the intellectual community
on both sides of the spectrum have also been included.

As relations with the United States were dominated by the debate on Civil
Nuclear Energy Cooperation, readers are advised to look at this section
also when looking for documents on India – United States relations and
vice a versa.

The documents have been arranged thematically, region-wise and
chronologically. A large number of agreements of diverse nature were
signed with various countries during high level visits abroad and in India in
the course of the year. Considering the increasing bulk of the collection,
agreements that have bearing on strategic and foreign policy issues alone
have been included here. However, in the case of neighbouring countries,
as per past practice, all agreements even of non-political and non-strategic
nature would be found, since India’s relations with its neighbours need to
be covered comprehensively.