NAM bid to revive spirit of cooperation

By K. V. Krishnaswamy

CARTAGENA (Colombia), APRIL 8. A three-day meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement countries began amid mixed signals this morning in this exotic city lashed by the Caribbean sea. Among the more than 50 Foreign Ministers from the 115 member-countries attending the conference are India's Mr. Jaswant Singh and Pakistan's Mr. Abdus Sattar.

No formal meetings between the two Ministers are in prospect. None has been sought by Pakistan, an Indian spokesman said, repeating a stance enunciated in New Delhi earlier in the week. The two travelled in the same plane from Miami, U.S., on their way to this South American country on Friday evening. But, apparently, there was no meeting ground.

The uneasy relationship between the two South Asian neighbours will be one area of interest in the next few days as the NAM launches a major effort to revive the spirit of commonality and cooperation that marked its early decades. As they chart the course of the movement in the coming years, retooling it for the challenges of the unipolar world, the Foreign Ministers face the unenviable task of shaking the NAM out of the moribund state in which it finds itself in the wake of the Cold War's end.

A hint of the enormity of the task was available on Friday as officials met to prepare the draft of the declaration the Foreign Ministers will adopt at the end of their deliberations. The drafting work was affected by the most unusual of problems, a shortage of translators in a country that speaks only Spanish. This was perhaps a reflection of the continuing apathy as the two committees entrusted with the preparation of the key political and economic formulations met, and absence of the pioneering spirit that gave the NAM such a powerful voice in the initial years.

The Foreign Ministers, who began their deliberations this morning, will focus on three areas; the developments around the world after their last meeting, which incidentally was at the same venue after India had exploded the bomb in 1998 and before Pakistan followed suit, the regional situation and disarmament. Much has happened after the last meeting when India came under criticism for crossing the nuclear rubicon. The focus, as officials see it, will be on nuclear disarmament and the failure of the `nuclear five' to honour their pledge to rid the world of these weapons of mass destruction.

According to official sources, India will concentrate on the issues of disarmament and the menace of terrorism.

The next two days will be devoted to intense debating and lobbying as each nation seeks to get its point of view incorporated in the declaration. The bland and please-all declaration that is finally adopted will of course do no justice to the hectic back stage work. All the blood on the floor will be wiped clean. That is non-alignment. Nothing is agreeable unless everyone agrees. This is the motto that has seen the movement through crises earlier and will apparently continue to do in the new millennium when its relevance, if any, has only increased.

Focus on U.N. millennium summit

PTI, UNI report:

Officials said that during the next two days, the millennium summit of the U.N. in September will in all probability be a focus of attention of most participants, specially in the wake of the just released report of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who has called for several policy measures to enable the world body to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

New Delhi and several other participants are expected to give their views on how NAM itself and the U.N. could gear themselves to respond to the challenges of peace, disarmament and development.

The NAM meet also assumes significance as it comes on the eve of the first-ever south summit to be held in Cuba later this month.

The doctrine of humanitarian intervention, thrown up for discussion by Mr. Annan at the commencement of the 54th regular session of the U.N. General Assembly in September last, would also be a part of the deliberations.

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