Sharon’s Legacy Hi,
I wish to remind arjun_m and others a few details... the fact is that India supported the palestienian cause for several reasons.

1)an important factor was the ``goodwill`` that supporting the palaestinians would bring India in the ME,it would definitely neutralise Pak`s advantage of claiming support for palaestinians on basis of religious brotherhood and getting the muslim countries to support it, in return, on kashmir.

2)Getting trade and other benefits from ME.who in the world needed Indian goods until now?it was the ME countries that helped Indian industry.

3)the support of countries like Egypt was crucial for non-aligned movement.the Baath parties that came into power in countries like syria,libya etc were also not fundamentalist or theocratic.. it was felt that having friendly relations with them would be useful esepcially in undermining Pak`s claim of religious brotherhood.

so its wrong to conclude that India supported Pales`s for nothing or that India did not get anything in return.maybe we didnt get as much as hoped for.. but lets not show contempt for Pales`s or fret about our past policies.

The Political-Economy of the South Asian Economic Union Today there was article in newspaper(The Hindu) that Japan has entered into a FTA with India&China.

now THATS something interesting.can we talk about those kind of deals? i feel that while SAFTA is something that may go a long way in promoting trade between the neighbouring countries,it is being debated too much here on Chowk(especially by fellow Indians).

cmon guys,we can do better than keep rambling here ,as one other member put it in the beginning itself,nobody else(meaning other nationalities) have bothered to post any interacts.

The Political-Economy of the South Asian Economic Union We want good relations with all neighbouring countries,irrespective of size or economic state.if the neighbouring countries wish to have free trade agreement with India,so be it.if they choose to have free trade agreements between themselves and not include India,then again ,so be it.
It will definitely be interesting to see Pak,BD,Nepal,Bhutan have an FTA without India in it.whetehr it will succeed and how much benefit they derive from this deal and will India have anything to lose by not being an part of it is not known.

frankly an SAFTA(without India) will not produce great worry in India.
The reason is that allover the World and especially in India,people are aware that as far as trade is concerend only 2 countries matter,the US and China.an FTA with these countries will arouse GREAT deal of interest.
the truth is that today we all have greater desire to have FTA with South American countries(like Brazil,Argentina,Venezuela) and others than be stuck without an sense of direction,entering into an FTA with Pak and BD.

ofcourse it would be an nice thing if we are able to trade with each other and SAFTA sounds good,but i only wish to point out that people from neighbouring countries need to be aware that it is better to focus energies building ties with other countries than waste time signing deals without honest purpose.