He was thinking in terms of humanity. He wanted to make non-alignment a positive instrument in the hands of humanity This particular aspect will have to be kept in mind.
With the changing world situation, it is only appropriate that different facets of non-alignment may receive emphasis at different times. However, to suggest that any element of non-alignment has become irrelevant to the contemporary reality is, to my mind, incorrect. I am making this point because there is a line of argument in the world today that the cold war era has come to an end.
May be, yes; exactly “cold war” may have come to an end, but the point is whether the basic situation has changed. I would certainly put a big question mark before it - in the sense whether there is a complete sense of stability in all the developing countries. Can we say that with confidence ? I think in the last two years our own Prime Minister has been warning the nation about the forces of destablisation being active and that we have to be quite aware of those forces and be prepared for it - creating some sort of a consciousness in the minds of people and creating that sense of solidarity and unity and confidence in our own capacity. This confidence is very essential. So to say that the world has become safe and, therefore, we need no longer worry about military pacts would be incorrect. The world has changed, no doubt, since the first Non-aligned Summit met in Belgrade, in 1961. Yet we are far from a stage where the world is without war, without want and without conflict or tension. In this changed and constantly changing world, the versatile concept of non-alignment is even more relevant than it was in 1961. It is true that the powers which confronted each other earlier, have now embarked on the path of relaxation of tensions. I have not used the word detente because, some people, as I said, are becoming allergic to the word. We have welcomed this positive development. In fact, we have expressed the view that to be meaningful, detente must extend to other continents and areas of tension and conflict. In fact, in our own region we are constantly striving to build a structure of durable peace and friendly co-operation. Yet, military alliances are still a reality. In fact, some of the pacts which were so far dormant have been revived again. What is more important is that impelled by a vision of global scarcity of basic resources, raw materials and energy, an economic dimension is being added to the military groupings. My colleague, the Minister of Commerce, is sitting nearby and he may bear me out when I say these things.
Recent events in Africa and the intensification of efforts for domination of the Indian Ocean are symptomatic of the stresses and strains to which detente is subject. To a large extent, the logic of detente derives from what I earlier called the technological imperatives. It would, therefore, be premature and unwise for anyone to conclude that military pacts have become a thing of the past. The non-aligned movement has played a very important role in preserving the independence of newly-liberated countries, in sustaining and strengthening the liberation movements, in the struggle against imperialism, colonialism and racialism. The movement has also been in the vanguard of the struggle for securing a new and just international economic order.
We, therefore, welcome the growing strength and the increasing appeal of the non-aligned movement. At he same time, it is essential to remember that the basic strength of the movement lies in unity and cohesion and not in mere numbers. We believe that this unity and cohesion of non-aligned movement cannot be maintained, if any of its fundamental principles, are sacrificed in the interest of expediency. This is an important point regarding non-alignment and when I got this opportunity, I thought I should make this point here. I would not deal with any further details about the question of a viable international framework for our foreign policy. I thought it necessary to explain that India’s foreign policy is certainly aimed at looking after India’s national interests. Our country’s foreign policy cannot afford to do anything else. But at the same time, it must have also the international framework. And this is the international framework. The international framework of any foreign policy and its national framework, really speaking are very organically inter-connected.
