New Delhi: Urging South Asian nations to put aside mistrust and dispel unwarranted suspicions, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today (Dec 12, 2003) envisaged mutual security cooperation, open borders and even a single currency in the region in the long run.

He called for promotion of peace and banishing of hostility in South Asia and cited the increased people- to-people contact between India and Pakistan as a reflection of "intense desire for amity and goodwill".

"As we develop greater economic stakes in each other, we can put aside mistrust and dispel unwarranted suspicions… Once we reach that stage, we would not be far from mutual security cooperation, open borders and even a single currency," Vajpayee said, inaugurating a two-day conference on 'Peace Dividend – Progress for India and South Asia' organised by 'Hindustan Times' in New Delhi.

He said the demands of globalisation and aspirations of people provided the objective basis for energetic pursuit of a "harmoniously integrated" South Asia. People, businesses and organisations were waiting to interact more closely with each other.

They have waited for over half-a-century for fulfillment of "unexploited potential in their own neighbourhood" and were now impatient to move ahead, Vajpayee told a distinguished audience that included former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Union Ministers, envoys of several countries and others.

PTI