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Distributed September 15, 2005
Contact Tracie Sweeney


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“The Argument for India”
Indian Foreign Minister Will Present Major Public Address Sept. 23

K. Natwar Singh, India’s minister of external affairs, will deliver “The Argument for India,” his only major public address while in the United States, at Brown University on Friday, Sept. 23, at 2:30 p.m. in Sayles Hall, located on The College Green. The lecture is open to the public without charge. The text of Singh’s address is available online.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — His Excellency K. Natwar Singh, India’s minister of external affairs, will deliver “The Argument for India” at Brown University on Friday, Sept. 23, at 2:30 p.m. in Sayles Hall, located on The College Green. This will be his only major public address during his official visit to the United States to participate in the annual U.N. General Assembly session.

The lecture is open to the public without charge.

Singh

“Foreign Minister Singh’s distinguished service to his country spans more than half a century,” said Thomas J. Biersteker, professor of political science and director of the Watson Institute for International Studies. “He has played a central role in creating a new basis for cooperation with neighboring countries of South Asia at a critical point in the region’s history, as well as in forging a new relationship with the United States.”

The Watson Institute is organizing the lecture with support from the Brown-India Fund and its parent and alumni donors.

Educated at the University of Delhi, Cambridge University, and Peking University, Singh first joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1953, rising to the rank of India’s ambassador to Poland (1971 to 1973) and ambassador to Pakistan (1982 to 1984). In the intervening years, he was the high commissioner to Zambia and deputy high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Singh spent many years with India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, where he represented India in the General Assembly, the Executive Board of UNICEF, and the U.N.’s Institute for Training and Research. He also served as president of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament and Development.

He became external affairs minister in 2004 after more than 20 years of service within the External Affairs Ministry. He also has served in the lower and upper houses of the Indian Parliament. In addition to his public career, Singh has been the secretary of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund and the vice chairman of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

A prolific author, Singh most recently wrote Profiles and Letters (1997), The Magnificent Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala (1997), and Heart to Heart (2003). For his literary work, he received the E. M. Forster Literary Award in 1989. His articles and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Saturday Review, Sunday Times, India Today and Times of India, among others.

His work as a public servant was recognized in 1984 with the Padma Bhushan Award, one of India’s most prestigious decorations for distinguished service to the country.

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