'Despite several odds India's foreign policy has done well'

Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran today said that despite several odds, India's foreign policy has done a "remarkable" job, though there is still scope of improvement.
Commenting over the country's foreign policy and leveraging its advantages in terms of location and manpower, Saran said, "It is the the odds under which Indian foreign policy is doing its job. Even today India has only 900 diplomats and we have very expansive job to perform our line of duty.
"If I am looking at the odds...In terms of numbers of the diplomats and limited resources, frankly speaking, I would say it has been all remarkable whatever has been achieved."

Saran was speaking during the discussion session on 'Talking Foreign Policy: How India Sees the World'.
The session was hosted by Asia Society India Centre.
He said, "If you ask is there room for improvement? then I would say yes, off course. If you ask me to rate the performance or give number (to the foreign policy) then I would give 7 to 8 number (out of 10)."

Sharing his views on different spectrum of India's foreign policy, Saran, who is also a senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research (CPR), said, "India has been at the crossroads from the centuries which has made India cosmopolitan remarkably, besides our culture which has been very ease with the plurality, has been a great asset for the country."

Saran, also underlined the narratives of India's foreign policy and said that it witnessed a judicious and progressive course from the Nehruvian period's socialist agenda to economic liberalisation.
Saran has recently written a book 'How India Sees the World: Kautilya to the 21st Century', using the prism of Kautilya's Arthashastra and other ancient treatises on statecraft.
Putting forth his views on what is India now-a-days in current scenario, he said, "I think we are trying to import the concepts of nationalism and national identity from the countries which perhaps are not as adverse as our country is.