Non alignment

The few books that have been written so far about the international role of non-aligned countries belong to the cold war period, when the non-aligned movement was a relatively new phenomenon and there was a tendency to confuse it with neutrality, neutralism or worse. The great power military alliances found it quite incomprehensible that the newly independent States should reject them and choose freedom from foreign entanglements, and they must have thought-"These newcomers could not possibly be very nice and surely they could not be fully trusted."

Over twenty years have passed since the first meeting of non aligned States in 1961. There have been six such meetings at the summit level and the seventh is due to convene in New Delhi in March 1983. The non-aligned movement today is well-established. has quadrupled its membership, commands a two-thirds majority of votes at the United Nations, and accounts for the majority of the world's population

It is an extraordinary movement of militarily and economically weak countries, whose main concerns are the prevention of a world war and the assurance to their propies of decent living standards These aims are also shared by the other two historic movements represented by the two military and idrological blocs. If these three great movements do not work together to achieve their common ends, there is a danger of a world-destroying war, or of mass poverty and deprivation on a global scale affecting hundreds of millions of people. I believe that the non-alig movement has a catalytic role in bringing the three movements together for the sake of a world without war and all that goes with it.