Today India can talk to Iran and Saudis in same way: V K Singh

V K Singh was speaking at 'The Gateways of India Dialogue'

Saying that the quality of India's diplomatic engagement had drastically changed since the NDA government came to power, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh today said the country has now "broken out of mould".

"Today India can hold friendly talks and business talks with Saudi Arabia and in similar terms it can (talk) with Iran. It can talk to US in mutually beneficial terms. And in similar terms with (its perceived adversaries) Russia and China. It has broken out of the mould created earlier," he said.

Singh was speaking at 'The Gateways of India Dialogue' here.

"People who are looking at India would agree that the quality of our diplomatic engagement has become totally different....Between Prime Minister, President and External Affairs Minister and me, we have already touched 140 countries. There are another 60-odd left and by the end of this year we would have touched each and every country.

"We are not looking at how small or big a country is, we are reaching out to everybody for the simple reason that everybody has a place, everybody mutually benefits with engagement," he added.

"Today we have highest FDI basket. It is because there is a great amount of trust in the world that they can come and invest in India," he said.

"India is a bright spot in world economy. Our GDP is growing much faster when other economies are going down or shrinking. (This is) Primarily because of our policy and positive environment that has been created," he said.