SHILLONG: The NDA government at the Centre has stressed on the need to improve its relationship with its neighbouring countries bordering the eight Northeastern states.
“We would like to improve our relationship both in term of trade and defence with the eastern world,” Union Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Minister Jitendra Singh told journalists after chairing the 63rd plenary meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC), here on Friday.
“This eastern part of the country is gateway to the eastern world. Therefore, before we look East, we would act East and once we act East, India would automatically and naturally begin to look East,” Singh added.
Underlining the need to take care of the problems confronted by Northeastern region, he said that the Union Government is committed to bring North East at par with mainstream India in terms of development and culturally.
According to Singh, the DoNER ministry will give its top priority to empower youths of the region by way of developing tourism and providing them employment, adding the exodus of North East youths to other states also needed to be taken care off.
“We will try our best to fulfill the objective of NEC and we will try to have more involvement of people and civil societies in the functioning of the NEC,” he said.
