'India maintains strategically autonomous foreign policy'

India is able to talk to any country openly and frankly and maintains a strategically autonomous foreign policy, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said here today.
"The important thing is that India is able to talk openly and frankly," Khurshid, who is here on a three-day visit, said while responding to a question on how he saw the recently held US-China dialogue.
"We don't like closing ourselves in a box, in fact. We remain strategically autonomous which is deeply the right model to do. It may have specific advantages and disadvantages, given the situation in the world," he said.
"Our own foreign policy has huge sentimental moral principles built into it," said Khurshid, after delivering a public lecture today.

He was responding to a question on how India felt about the recent China-US dialogue, seen as an effort by the two countries to work out closer relationship.
Khurshid stressed that India treats both China and the United States as strategic partners.

Elaborating, Khurshid said India never treat its relationship with another country based on that country's relationships with another country.
He said India has engaged China despite its differences with Pakistan and Beijing's historical alliance with Islamabad.
"We rely on progressive engagement with China. Our Prime Minister met previous leadership eight times in the last few years. The first official visit Premier Li Keqiang made was to India, which I think is very, very important gesture."

Khurshid stressed that India dealt with all countries, whether they are big or small, as a friend.
"We dealt with Iran as a friend to the full knowledge of the US. They never told us that we should stop talking to Iran," he said.