Noting that it has a stake in the world's future because of growth in its stature, India on Thursday emphasised that it has been trying to achieve a peaceful extended neighbourhood even while engaging with major powers.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in view of the change of the country's profile, foreign policy was facing new challenges, requiring change in it.

"The confidence and enthusiasm that is so evident in our international engagement today is based not on any abstruse concept, but on real achievements," he said addressing a gathering of diplomats in Delhi.

Mukherjee said the sustained high levels of economic growth, the phenomenal achievements of the country's industry, particularly the knowledge industry and the strategic leaps in the nuclear and space fields are only some of the major reasons for this.

"They have been accompanied by a determined effort to improve relations with all the major powers simultaneously," he said adding, "we have moved quickly to try and achieve a peaceful extended neighbourhood with which we can engage intensively for the benefit of the people of the entire region."

He said the country's envoys today represent a different India, which may not have yet solved all its problems, but is still resurgent and confident and no longer satisfied with being a spectator in any arena.

"It is an India willing to be heard with a voice that can make a difference to any outcome. And, as home to one-sixth of the world's population, it is an India that has not only a stake in the future of the world, but also the wherewithal to play a decisive role in shaping this future," he said.

Mukherjee said the transformation of India's stature and its role in the international system also imposes the necessity to transform its diplomacy and importantly, the diplomats.

"In terms of perception, too, Indian's image indicators are changing to that of a country that is both demographically young as well as the spearhead of the knowledge and IT revolutions.

"These are the images -- and not the tiger, the maharaja, the rope trick or begging bowl images -- that our diplomats will meet abroad, images that they have to sustain and promote.

The envoys should be astute thinkers and negotiators as also hard-headed managers and savvy communicators. They should be equally at home dealing not only with politicians and other diplomats, but also with economists, CEOs and television journalists," he added.