The President, Pranab Mukherjee, who is traveling to Belgium and Turkey on state visits, said that countries could not choose their neighbours but had the capacity to choose whether to maintain good or bad relations with them.
“It is easier to change friend but it is not possible to change neighbour. Neighbours are going to stay where they are therefore it is for us to decide whether we will live in perpetual tension with neighbour or we will live in peace with neighbour,” said Mukherjee aboard on Saturday.
Earlier on Thursday (October 03) Mukherjee met Belgium Prime Minister, Elio Di Rupo, and signed an agreement to deepen economic ties in areas of infrastructure, nuclear energy, information technology and higher education between the two countries.
“Our economic partnership with Belgium is of particular importance as it has emerged as India’s second largest trading partner within the European union. We discussed a number of important areas of economic cooperation including some in the pipeline,” Mukherjee said.
During his stay in Belgium, Mukherjee inaugurated the ‘Europalia-India 2013-14’, a cultural extravaganza showcasing India.
This was the first visit by an Indian President to a European country.
The President, who left Belgium for Turkey on October 5, will be in Turkey till October 7 where he will attend several events. He is going there on an invitation by the President of Turkey.
It would be the third visit by an Indian President to Turkey after the visits by the President of India in 1993 and 1998. (ANI)