Manmohan Singh will travel to Havana to attend the NAM summit and give the annual pilgrimage to New York for the UN General Assembly a miss
NEW DELHI: Stung by criticism from the UPA’s Left allies that India has turned its back on its traditional non-aligned friends, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will travel to Havana to attend the non-aligned movement (NAM) summit and give the annual pilgrimage to New York for the UN General Assembly a miss.
A meeting with the US President is normally an important part of the sidelights of the UNGA meet. There are also a number of interactions with other important world leaders who all converge on New York each September. The Prime Minister, sources say, is reluctantly to stay out of the country for too long and given a choice between New York and Havana, opted for the second. The NAM meet from September 11-16, is roughly around the same time as the UNGA. The Prime Minister will also be in Brazil for the India-Brazil-South Africa summit in the same month.
NAM has traditionally taken an anti-US position on important issues. Now with Cuba’s President Fidel Castro slated to take over as chairman, opposition to the US will be high on the NAM agenda. The US had tried its best through its friends among the 116 odd member countries to block Cuba taking over as chairman of the movement. However, the attempt failed.
Cuba will assume the presidency for three-year mandate, at a time when anti-US forces are gathering momentum in Latin America. High on the agenda will be Iran’s right to develop its peaceful nuclear programme. In fact, during the recent meet in Putrajaya in Malayasia, condemnations of the US-imposed economic blockade on Cuba, of torture in US prisons, and of military aggression against other nations principally Iraq was part of the declaration.
Despite being a founding member of the non-aligned movement, India since 1991 has been distancing itself from the politics of the third world. Narasimha Rao, as prime minister, had decided that pragmatism rather than third world ideological baggage was the way to go for India. Since then India had steadily moved towards courting the US and the Western world, culminating in a strategic partnership with the US and the civilian nuclear deal. But the Left, an important ally of the government has consistently opposed India’s pro-US policy. A showing at the NAM summit in the Communist heartland would certainly reassure the Left.
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