India today lamented the fact that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has increasingly become ineffective in certain other areas, particularly in tackling new and emerging challenges.
This was primarily due to the tendencies of some NAM members to deliberately take up divisive issues, or to use NAM platform for bilateral score-settling, thereby creating division among member countries, Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi with directly naming Pakistan at the high level commemorative meeting to mark the 60th anniversary of NAM.
She said the pursuance of partisan agenda rather than working towards strengthening the collective effort of the NAM countries has resulted in an increasing number of members having to disassociate themselves from NAM positions.
The Indian minister regretted that NAM members were splitting themselves into camps reflecting geo-political divides outside NAM rather than strengthening NAM itself to become an independent pillar and influential voice in international forums.
”NAM was created to pursue the collective interest of developing countries. This has been our strength, but we risk becoming irrelevant if we do not check the divisive tendencies within our movement. We also need to revisit and revitalise our methodology of discussion and decision making, following arbitrary and non-criteria based procedures will not hold us in good stead,” Lekhi added.
She also spoke about Covid-19, saying the way in which the pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe has exposed the inadequacies of the multilateral system in effectively responding to perhaps the biggest challenge of contemporary times. ”NAM, with its diversity, shared developmental experience, and youthful and dynamic population, has the potential to take the lead and be a force for global good,” she added.