BJD MP Mahtab urges fellow parliamentarians to back PM on foreign policy front

Senior BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab on Wednesday appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his foreign policy initiatives and urged all parliamentarians to support his government's endeavour on this front.

Speaking during Zero Hour in Lok Sabha, he said India has travelled a long way from non-aligned movement and all MPs should speak in one voice on foreign policy.

"Our foreign policy is in the domain of the Executive. Yet, there is unanimity in political sphere. Therefore, I urge this House, through you, to extend full support to our Prime Minister's endeavour in this regard. We should speak in one voice in this difficult time to further our national interest," he said.

Talking about various meetings the prime minister is scheduled to have with world leaders, Mahtab said Modi will be meeting President Trump in the US in September during his visit to address the UN General Assembly and is also likely to hold an informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Varanasi.

Terming the G20 Summit held at Osaka this year a big positive for India, Mahtab said the US president's top advisor Ivanka Trump had stated India as 'critical' trading and security partner and ally of America.

India's two back-to-back trilateral talks one with President Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the other with President Xi and President Putin, and subsequently, BRICS Summit, have demonstrated a convergence of interest on maintaining an open and multilateral globe trade regime which is very much in favour our interest, he said.

Earlier, Mahtab had demanded that the central government conduct an impartial investigation into the "mysterious death" of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of BJP's political predecessor Jana Sangh, as no such probe has been done till date.