Why in News: The 17th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held on 17 and 18 September in Margarita Island, northeast of Venezuela, in presence of leaders and representatives of 120 Member States.
Non Alignment Movement
- Following World War II active military conflict was replaced by the wars of Ideology, which was termed as “Cold War”
- Newly Independent countries like India had an option to join the two blocks (U.S & erstwhile U.S.S.R)
- The interest of the world peace & the national interest of the newly independent countries inspired them to come together on common platform and to preserve a policy of Non Alignment Policy (NAM)
- It was first coined by V.K Krishna Menon during his address in U.N in 1953
- In 1954, Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru, used the term Non Alignment during Africa Asian Nation conference at Colombia. In this speech put forward the panchsheel principles as the basis of Non Alignment movement.
- In 1955, at the conference of Afro-Asian Nation which was held in Bandara Indonesia, President Sukano of Indonesia addressed the conference & asked all the member nations not to be part of any bloc of cold war.
- In September, 1961, the conference which was held in Belgrade (Yugoslavia) the Afro-Asian conference came to be known as “Conference of State” or “Government of Non Aligned Countries.”
- The term NAM was first used in 1976 at Colombo Conference
Aims & Objective of NAM
- Promotion of world peace
- Peaceful resolution of disputes
- Abstention from Big power military alliance
- Opposition to military bases in foreign countries
- Promotion of close economic, cultural cooperation among all its member nations.
Binding Principles of NAM
- Respect for fundamental human right
- Respect for sovereignty & territorial integrity of all nations
- Recognition of the movement of all nations
- Equality-Racer & equality of all Nations
- Abstain from intervention in the internal affairs of the countries
- Respect the right of each nation to defend itself.
- Settlement of international dispute through peaceful means
- Promotion of mutual interest & cooperation
- Respect for justice & international obligations
Relevance of NAM
- There are 120 active members & 15 observers
- In 2012 summit, inspite of allied west nations pressurising & isolating Iran, it did not work & Iran participated with the rest of the NAM nations.
- It stands for independence/independent Foreign policy as such right of the nation & its approach is always relevant to the present world.
- Its aim is to have close economic & cultured cooperation; many of the nations are still developing & need to continue work together.
- NAM promotes internationalism & believes in the philosophy of peaceful co-existence. Such principles are more relevant today where the world is facing a number of crisis caused by unilateralism
- Belief in equality of nations & equality of mankind. This signifies that when the big powers of the world are busy in creating a new world order to satisfy their national interest.
- At present there is an increase number of conflicts among the countries which can be tackled by promoting the philosophy of NAM
Achievements of NAM
- Strengthened world peace & cooperation among nations
- Voiced against colonialism & promoted self made & self determination
- Condemned Racism: Condemned S. Africa for implementing apartheid
- Economic & cultural cooperation: Condemned the U.S policy of unilateralism in Arab
- NAM has raised the demand of UN reform to make this world body truly representative of new world order
- Continuously promoted South-South cooperation
- NAM has promoted universal human rights & always condemned cultural attacks on other nations
- In 2012 NAM summit, when west trued to isolate Iran, NAM ensured their ideas were failed (The summit unanimously supported Iran’s right to develop nuclear program for peaceful purpose
Why NAM plays a huge role:
- NAM must be strengthen to ensure the rights of weaker nation remain protected in mutilated international institutions & platform such as UN,WTO
- Number of trans-national challenges faced by world at present from terrorism, smuggling & other non-state actors. This can be countered through close cooperation through NAM because they are the most affected from it.
- Environmental challenges/climate changes/Global warning: Poor nations are getting affected the most. NAM can act as a platform to negotiate climate changes & voice the needs of poor nations.
- Economic Recession: Due to mismanagement & manipulation of financial institution by developed nations. NAM must be strengthen to guide especially when the global power is gradually shifting away from Europe & N. America
- NAM favours anti imperialism: In today’s world it is more relevant as the technology advances sovereignty of all the countries have become more risky. Individual nations can be tampered economically & politically. Thus NAM is very valuable today.
- UN which is the biggest organisation is dominated by powerful countries (P5) to bring leverage in UN, NAM can play an important role.
- NAM for India: It will help to maintain its strategic autonomy & to preserve our strategic space.
- Given by Centre for policy research
- Emphasis of sustaining domestic Economic growth, social-inclusion & democracy for Indians strategic & foreign policy.
- Approach of NAM should be used to secure maximum space possible for growth of India’s economic.
- NAM 2.0 calls for re-orientation of NAM
- Emphasis on sustaining domestic economic growth, social inclusions & democracy for Indians strategic & foreign policy.
- Approach of NAM should be used to secure maximum space for India’s economic growth which would lead to India becoming prosperous & equitable
- It must pursue Non Alignment vis-a-vis Sino-American conflict & should ensure they do not support either of the countries (super power)
- It stresses on cooperation & isolation.
- It is different because world is no longer divided by two dominant power. Non Alignment today will require managing complicated coalition & opportunities in an environment that is not structurally settled
Why is NAM falling apart?
- Non Aligned Movement which was held between 13th Sep – 17th Sep in Margarita, Venezuela. Heads of the governments from various countries attended this summit. Vice President of India represented our country instead of the Prime Minister. Prior to this only once the Indian Prime Minister not been to the NAM Summit, and that was in 1979 when caretaker Prime Minister Charan Singh did not go to Havana.
- Past 60 years, the NAM has seen an erosion of its authority. The Third World debt crisis of the 1980s crushed the economic ambitions of these NAM states. By the time NAM gathered in Delhi in 1983, it was a shadow of its origins. In NAM they had wished the centuries away, but now, awash in debt, they had to settle for the present. The Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. bombed Panama and Iraq, and history seemed to end with American ascendency. Proud nations queued up to curry favour with Washington, settle accounts at the International Monetary Fund and begin to sniff their noses at platforms such as NAM.
- Argentina left NAM by 1991 & India, having a good relationship with U.S has indicated that they are not active participants of NAM. The next president for NAM will be Azerbaijan, who is a newcomer to NAM and one that does not have a presence on the world stage. NAM needs an excellent leader with active participants from various countries if they want to make their presence in the world.
Highlights of 2016 NAM Summit
- The Non-Aligned Movement wrapped up a summit on 19th Sep in Venezuela with an expression of support for its embattled host, President Nicolas Maduro, and scathing attacks on US “interventionism” around the world.
- The 120-member group issued a statement at the end of the two-day meeting calling for peace, urging world powers not to meddle in other countries’ affairs and voicing concern over violence in Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories.
- Just a handful of heads of state or government attended the summit on the Caribbean island of Margarita, though organisers did not say exactly how many.
- Ansari was the leading Indian delegation for the Summit in the absence of Modi, who was only the second Indian Premier to not go for the conference after Charan Singh in 1979.
- India made a strong anti-terror pitch at the Summit, asserting that “concrete action” was needed in the fight against terrorism and asked the 120-nation group to set up a mechanism to ensure effective cooperation in combating the menace.
- Ansari’s remarks came against the backdrop of India raising its concerns at various international forums over Pakistan’s support to cross-border terrorism.
- PM Modi had made clear references to Pakistan’s support to terrorism without naming it at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, at a BRICS meeting in Hangzhou and at the Asean and East Asia summits in Lao PDR.
- Mr. Sartaj Aziz also met Iranian Foreign Minister Mr. Jawad Zareef, , on sidelines of the 17 NAM Summit. The two sides discussed bilateral relations and regional developments with particular focus on Afghanistan.
- Mr. Aziz briefed his Iranian counterpart on the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir and Pakistan-India relations. He also appreciated Iran’s role as the President of NAM. Iran is the outgoing President, having led the NAM process since 2012.
- World leaders at their Summit at the UN in 2005 had called for urgent reform of the Security Council as part of the effort to make the United Nations fit for the 21st century.
- The Inter-governmental Negotiations process currently underway in the UN General Assembly seeks to fulfil that mandate.
- Noting that the global landscape has changed since 1961, when NAM was formed, Ansari stressed that the values and principles on which the foundations of the movement, namely “respect for sovereignty”, “peaceful settlement of disputes” and “international cooperation” — are as relevant today as they were at the time of the first summit.
- Sartaj Aziz, in his address as the Pakistan delegation head, said peace in South Asia cannot be achieved without the settlement of the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council.