Date:19/02/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/02/19/stories/2003021908291100.htm

National

NAM should focus on global issues, says Sibal

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI Feb. 18. India is keen on ensuring that the coming Non-Aligned Movement summit in Kuala Lumpur focusses on global issues, instead of addressing intra-NAM conflict resolution matters.

Briefing presspersons before leaving for the senior officials' meeting in Malaysia, the Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal, said that intra-NAM conflict resolution efforts would not be "for the good of the movement." Asked if he was concerned about the prospect of Pakistan raising the Kashmir issue at the NAM meeting, Mr. Sibal said there was no need to be "worried very much'' on this count.

Even in the United Nations General Assembly, there was only one country (Pakistan), which mentioned Kashmir; nobody else referred to the issue. Without naming Pakistan, Mr. Sibal said the country would be present in Kuala Lumpur. He expected it to "act true to form'' and refer to its "pet theme.''

There were other issues involving NAM countries. When there was talk about intra-NAM conflict resolution, African countries did look favourably at such efforts coming from within the movement. ``If there was no global agenda which you have to contend with, I can understand that you are looking for a role. But when there's such a complex and vast agenda stacked against you, there's a lot the NAM countries can and must do together....'' The NAM's strength lay in its numbers (115 nations) and if they did not act together, even the force of numbers would not be effective.

Asked how the Kuala Lumpur declaration would be issued, Mr. Sibal said this was always done by consensus. He ruled out with a loud "no'' the possibility of a meeting between the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, on the sidelines of the summit. And on whether there was an effort to ensure that the two leaders did not run into each other by chance, he said: "When they are not going to meet, they are not going to meet. It's as simple as that. We don't have to do any choreography.''

Would NAM focus on Iraq? The Foreign Secretary said it was inevitable. "It will require a huge leap in imagination to forget Iraq... You know how much the debate on Iraq is divisive in any case — even in New York — pitting members of the (U.N.) Security Council against each other, creating rifts, divisions in Europe, in NATO.'' The Gulf countries were also concerned about the impact of a war in Iraq. ``There is the whole question of oil.... the price of oil, the security of oil supplies. It is a matter of global concern. There are other questions about the integrity of Iraq, how it impacts on the neighbourhood, what the neighbouring countries may or may not do....''

This was the debate taking place in the West. And there were concerns within the international community about the role of the United Nations — the issue of unilateralism versus multilateralism. ``So, clearly NAM countries will not be able to escape addressing the Iraq issue and all that the Iraq issue implies in terms of the functioning of the international system,'' Mr. Sibal said. On the relevance of NAM itself, he posed a counter-question — what was the relevance of NATO when there was peace in Europe? India had never looked at NAM to place itself in the "middle'' of two power blocs.

It was a method of preserving some independence of judgment and action in international affairs rather than having policies determined by one or the other bloc.