IT has been evident for some time that India has been slowly but surely veering away from the principles of non-alignment that defined its foreign policy for more than four decades after independence. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi's decision to skip the important NAM summit in Venezuela is only a stark illustration of this reality. Previous UPA and NDA governments had started the process of downgrading the movement founded by the leaders of anti-colonial struggle like Jawaharlal Nehru, Achmed Sukarno, Khwame Nkrumah and Gamel Abdel Nasser. One of the principal demands of the non aligned nations was the removal of foreign military bases that had sprung up in Asia after the onset of the Cold War. NAM has been demanding the closing down of the American military bases in the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and the demilitarisation of the Indian Ocean region.

Now India, once the pre-eminent leader of NAM has no compunctions in entering into a military alliance with the United States and offering the American military virtual basing facilities on its territory. The NAM was founded on a common set of principles which included the preservation of national sovereignty, rejection of foreign bases, defending the right of self determination, not joining power blocs like NATO and fighting for global nuclear disarmament. The growing political and strategic alliance with the United States and the shift away from the guiding principles of NAM has come into sharp focus with the signing of the India-US Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in late August. The agreement which essentially is a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) will give American troops and equipment routine access to Indian military bases. In short, India, in the bargain, seems to have given up its time tested policy of “strategic neutrality”.

At the time the LSA was signed in Washington by the American defense secretary, Ashton Carter and the Indian defense minister, Manohar Parrikar, the American secretary of state, John Kerry was in Delhi to attend the second US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. India has also been designated as a “major defense partner” by the United States. Most of the major recent defense deals India has signed have been with the United States. In the joint statement issued during the visit of the American secretary of state, both sides once again reiterated the common positions the two countries hold on the contentious South China Sea dispute.

MILITARY & STRATEGIC EMBRACE

BETWEEN WASHINGTON & DELHI

In many capitals of the world, the LSA agreement between India and the US is being viewed from the perspective of President Obama’s military pivot to the East. This is a barely concealed move to militarily encircle China. The tight military and strategic embrace between Washington and Delhi also comes at a time when a new Cold War seems to be on the verge of erupting between the United States and Russia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to absent himself from the NAM summit must have gladdened Washington. Historically, the American government has no love lost for the NAM movement. But what would have made the Obama administration particularly happy with the Indian prime minister's decision was that it would be interpreted as a snub to the Venezuelan government.

Washington has been working overtime to bring down the democratically elected Venezuelan government led by President Nicolas Maduro. The Venezuelan government has accused the Obama administration of trying to foment another coup in the country. Washington is trying to exploit the domestic turbulence in the country that was fueled by the dramatic fall in global oil prices, to its benefit. Washington has already mobilised many of its allies in the region in the ongoing campaign for regime change in Venezuela. At the NAM summit, member countries unanimously condemned calls for outside intervention in Venezuela's internal affairs. NAM has also called for the removal of American sanctions on the country and called on the international community to respect Venezuela's sovereignty.

The Venezuelan government was eagerly looking forward to the presence of the Indian prime minister at the summit. Venezuela had postponed the summit by almost a year to ensure the presence of the Indian prime minister along with other world leaders. The NAM summit was originally scheduled to be held in 2015 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Bandung Conference – the precursor of NAM. Modi had told the host country last year that prior international commitments had made it difficult for him to attend the summit. Modi's priority that year was to visit a few countries in the Central Asian region. This year, he has not bothered to give any excuses for not attending the NAM summit. In August, the Venezuelan foreign minister, Delcy Rodriguez, had come to Delhi to personally hand over the invitation letter from the Venezuelan president to the Indian prime minister.  Prime Minister Modi however could not even find the time to meet with the visiting Venezuelan foreign minister.

During the India-Africa summit held in Delhi last year, Prime Minister Modi did not even mention NAM in his inaugural and closing speeches. African countries continue to give a lot of importance to NAM as the support of the organisation was important for the success of the decolonisation struggle. Modi will now have the dubious reputation of being the second Indian prime minister after Charan Singh in 1979 to give the prestigious summit a miss. Charan Singh however was only a “caretaker” prime minister who was in office for six months. Yashwant Sinha, who was external affairs minister in the previous NDA government was of the view that the Indian prime minister should have been present at the NAM summit. He pointed out that the former prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee was keen about India continuing to play a key role in NAM deliberations.

India was represented by the vice president, Hamid Ansari at the summit held in Margarita island. It was expected that the external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, was expected to accompany the vice president. But she too preferred to give the summit a miss. It is being suggested that health issues prevented her from making the trip. She however was healthy enough to make a similar long trip to New York to represent Indian at the annual UN General Assembly meet. Margarita is only a few hours away New York. The heads of state of other leading NAM countries including Iran, Cuba and South Africa were all present. NAM, which has 120 members, is the second biggest international grouping after the United Nations. Venezuela will hold the NAM presidency till 2019. The theme of this year's summit was – “Peace, Sovereignty and Solidarity for Development”.

India has a realistic chance of entry into UN's high table –the Security Council only if it has the support of the non aligned bloc. Relying exclusively on the West to gate crash into the UNSC as the UPA and NDA governments are doing, could prove to be counter-productive. The Indian external affairs ministry statement had emphasised that the summit is an important platform for interaction with partner countries in Latin America and Africa. “NAM continues to represent space for action in pursuance of the collective interests of the developing world along with the G-77, especially on subjects such as the reforms of global economic system and disarmament”, the statement said.

Venezuela had announced at the beginning of the summit that it would “spearhead” the move to transform the UN system that is dominated by the United States.  The final declaration issued at the end of the NAM summit called for the implementation of speedy reforms. The NAM statement “reiterated the need to recover and strengthen the authority of the General Assembly as the most democratic, accountable, universal and representative body of the Organisation”. The statement also called for the reform of the Security Council “in order to transform it into a more democratic, effective, efficient, transparent and representative body, and in line with contemporary geo-political realities”.  

ON GROWING MENACE

OF TERRORISM

On the growing menace of terrorism, the final NAM declaration stressed that it “constituted one of the most serious threats to international peace and security”. It called on member states to prevent and combat terrorism “in all its forms and manifestations, including its financing and illicit transfer of weapons”. At the same time, the Declaration  reaffirmed the NAM position that terrorism and violent extremism “should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilisation or ethnic group, and that these attributions should not be used to justify terrorism or counter terrorism measures that include, inter alia, profiling of terror suspects and intrusion of personal privacy”. Vice President Hamid Ansari in his speech at the summit devoted considerable time on the issue of terrorism. The implicit focus was on state sponsored terrorism from across India's borders. NAM members did not want to get embroiled in the India-Pakistan diplomatic fracas or the Kashmir dispute. Only once in the history of NAM summits was the Kashmir issue mentioned. In the 1998 NAM summit at Durban, Nelson Mandela had said that “all of us remain concerned” about the issue of Kashmir and had offered to mediate between New Delhi and Islamabad to resolve the issue.

The member states have committed to further solidify relations among themselves and at the same time to build alliance with groupings like BRICS. The other priorities listed in the NAM Declaration relate to poverty eradication, promoting peace and addressing the issue of climate change on the world stage. NAM also condemned the US economic blockade of Cuba and condemned Europe's refugee policy. The declaration expressed support for the struggles of the people of Palestine and Puerto Rico, in their struggle for independence. Puerto Rico has been an American colony since the end of the 19th century.

The Cuban President Raul Castro in his speech at the NAM summit said that normal relations with the United States will only happen after the economic blockade is lifted. “There will be no normal relations before that issue is resolved and other policies harmful to Cuba's sovereignty are terminated, such as interventionists and subversive programs”, Raul said in his speech. The Cuban president said that Venezuela's sovereignty was under attack and reaffirmed Cuba's “unconditional support to the Venezuelan government and people”. President Maduro in his closing speech said that the NAM represents the “struggle of the peoples of the South for their right to peace”. Maduro also announced that a deal between the OPEC and non-OPEC countries was on the anvil to stabilise global oil prices. Despite all the domestic problems Venezuela is facing, the socialist government managed the staging of the NAM summit in the island of Margarita with finesse and professionalism.