People's Democracy

Rebuff US Lecturing On Foreign Policy

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on June 29.

THAT the United States has been hostile to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is well known. But US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, using the platform of the US-India Business Council to decry the NAM and brand it irrelevant has a specific motive. The NAM is a movement that still stands for the defence of national sovereignty of nations and for a more equitable world order, in contrast to the United States’ strive for domination.

The United States is signalling to India not to play an active role in NAM, which has got Cuba as its current chairman. The message is being conveyed alongwith the assurance that the nuclear cooperation agreement can be finalised provided India understands the parameters of the “strategic alliance” with the United States.

The least that the UPA government can do is to come out with a clear and categorical statement that India does not need to be lectured to on its foreign policy, and by reiterating its basic commitment to the NAM. The UPA government should also realise that the country is closely watching the course of the nuclear cooperation talks and will not countenance any compromise under US pressure.