BY IANS | NEW DELHI Mahek Mansoor, a 15-year-old student from Pakistan couldn’t agree more with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she said that youngsters from both the countries can “sow seeds to transcend boundaries” at an event in Delhi University Monday.
Mahek is one of five Pakistani students on an exchange programme here. But it’s her second visit to India and, in her own words, she is “enjoying every bit of it”.
“We reached India day before yesterday and went to Mumbai. I find Mumbai very much like Lahore. It’s a great city. Same is with Delhi,” the young student of King Edward Medical College in Lahore, told IANS.
Mahek was part of the student exchange programme organised by Seeds of Peace, an organisation that aims to empower young leaders in regions of conflict in the Middle East and South Asia. It was formed in 1993.
All praise for the nature of the initiative, Clinton said: “I am very happy that students of Seeds of Peace are here today. Students of India and Pakistan can sow seeds to transcend boundaries.”
Dressed in a formal white suit with a string of pearls around her neck, Clinton, who spoke for nearly 20 minutes before interacting and taking queries from students at the university’s Convention Hall, said that it is very important for leaders and people to keep talking.
She also stressed on people-to-people contact.
After gently directing Shrinjoy, one of the students of Seeds of Peace, to “hold up the microphone” to his mouth so that one could hear his question to her clearly, Clinton said “it is important that students of both the countries are coming together” for a dialogue.
Shrinjoy had asked Clinton on the youth’s role in combating terrorism.
Using an analogy from the Cold War to underscore her point about the need for continuous conversation between nations despite hostility and differences in ideology, she said: “When I was growing up, the Soviet Union and Communism was as scary to us as terrorism and extremism is today. We have this sense of the wrong we have nothing to do with them they have nothing to do with us.”
“But our leaders never stopped talking, they went to summits, our diplomats got engaged to look for ways to avoid nuclear wars or other incidents,” Clinton said.
“So I am a big believer in talking, that doesn’t mean you give (up) your principles, your values, your safety and security but through talking perhaps progress can be made.”
Clinton stressed on the need for expanding people-to-people contacts in the South Asian context.
“I hope we find new and creative ways to enhance people-to-people connect in this region, some of them through organisations, some of them through businesses and some of them through academics. I believe in it very strongly and I think it holds great promise.”
Impressed by what Clinton said, a student-member of the delegation said: “We really believe what she was just saying. That no matter what happens, both our countries should not stop talking. And as youngsters, we can be vanguards of change, of bringing about peace in the region. That’s what we all want.”
All the students in the delegation are 14-15 years of age.
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