External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday praised former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his deft diplomacy following the Pokhran nuclear tests, which was conducted in 1998.

Presiding over the third Atal Bihari Vajpayee Memorial lecture, Jaishankar said that within two years of the nuclear tests, India had engaged with all the important nations of the world.

The lecture was delivered by former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan in New Delhi.

Jaishankar also praised Vajpayee's tenure as External Affairs Minister, and his role in strengthening India's ties with the US and Russia.

He said the fundamentals of mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest that are talked about now in terms of the modus vivendi with China, a lot of it is credited to Vajpayee. (KB/IANS)