MEA budget should match India's global aspirations: Parliamentary committee

NEW DELHI: Budgetary allocations to the Ministry of External Affairs should match India's global aspirations, a Parliamentary committee has observed saying that if the Finance Ministry is unable to grant funds then the PMO should intervene as the nation's interests are at stake.

It also asked the MEA to tap resources from other concerned ministries as "development partnerships" so that the objectives of Indian foreign policy are achieved through a synergistic approach.

"The Committee reiterate their often-expressed view that if the Ministry of Finance proves unable or unwilling to provide the adequate and predictable funding required, the Prime Minister's Office should intervene since national interests are at stake," the Department-Related Standing Committee on External Affairs said in its latest report tabled in Parliament today.

The panel said it had been concerned with the "problem of budgetary constraints which has resulted in the lack of coherence in foreign policy implementation".

"...the committee urge the government, particularly the Ministry of Finance, to be mindful of the fact that budgetary allocations to the Ministry of External Affairs should be commensurate with India's global aspirations," said the panel.

It also said that for justifying its requirements, the MEA should collect comparative figures of budgetary allocations to the foreign ministries of selective countries, and apprise it about the outcome of such an exercise.