The reality is that international institutions like the UN can only be as effective as its members allow it to be.

I have a vision of India-an India free of hunger and fear, an India free of illiteracy and want.

Freedom is incomplete without social justice.

If you do not like anything in a particular book, then sit and discuss it. Banning a book is not a solution. We have to tackle it ideologically.

Our nuclear weapons are meant purely as a deterrent against nuclear adventure by an adversary.

Let us together commence a journey of peace, harmony and progress in South Asia.

We hope the world will act in the spirit of enlightened self-interest.

We do not believe that a nuclear war should be fought, and we do not believe that a nuclear war can be won.

Global interdependence today means that economic disasters in developing countries could create a backlash on developed countries.

No state should be allowed to profess partnership with the global coalition against terror, while continuing to aid, abet and sponsor terrorism.

In the euphoria after the Cold War, there was a misplaced notion that the UN could solve every problem anywhere.

Declaring victory without war .. the belief that India gave up the option of war under American pressure is totally wrong.

There was an implicit conviction that the UN would be stronger than the sum of its constituent member-states.

The Bio-diversity Convention has not yielded any tangible benefits to the world's poor.

Poverty is multidimensional. It extends beyond money incomes to education, health care, political participation and advancement of one's own culture and social organisation.

Population needs to be stabilised for sustainable development.

As we talk with candour, we open the doors to new possibilities and new areas of cooperation in advance in democracy, in combating terrorism, in energy and environment, science and technology and international peacekeeping.