Cuban leader Castro fails to turn up for NAM meet

Havana, Sep 16: The 14th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit opened with a fierce attack by the hosts against the US and the West as expected but without the charismatic presence of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

India called upon the 116-member grouping to unite in the fight against terrorism and proposed the establishment of a Working Group on Energy Security to be coordinated by India as well as a high-level group for West Asia.

In his intervention at the plenary session of the summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also sugested a major NAM initiative on Africa, saying the future of the planet was inextricably linked to the destiny of the continent.

The Prime Minister made out a strong case for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for India.

Overall, Dr Singh stressed the need for NAM to unite behind a "common and a fundamentally new vision of "inclusive globalisation".

The 80-year-old Castro was still elected the Chairman of the Conference. First Vice-President Raul Castro, who is acting as President while his elder brother recuperates from an intestinal surgery in July, conducted the proceedings of the summit.

Cuba took over as Chairman of the grouping from Malaysia today.

Other leaders attending the summit from across the globe include Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said in a statement at the summit that President Castro was recovering but was still too ill to chair the summit.

The Cuban leader's health has loomed large over the summit at which Iran and others opposed to US policies are seeking to forge a united front. These include Venezuela and North Korea. Cuba itself has been under a US embargo since 1962.

India and Pakistan are among countries at the summit that are now seen as closer to Washington, though Dr Singh has been at pains to explain that India's ties with the US are not at the expense of any other country.

The summit is discussing major global and regional issues such as the situation in Lebanon, expansion of the UN Security Council and the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme.

Dr Singh arrived here for the summit last evening describing NAM as a "state of mind" and urging the grouping to live up to its new potential in a "highly uncertain,insecure world." India and other like-minded member-countries will attempt to project a new and contemporary vision of the grouping to make it more relevant to the post-Cold War, post 9/11 era.

The highlight of Dr Singh's stay in Havana will be a bilateral meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf tomorrow on the sidelines of the summit, their first interaction in a year.

The Prime Minister will use the opportunity to convey to Gen Musharraf that there cannot be forward movement in the peace process unless Pakistan provides susbtantive evidence to show that it had stopped supporting cross-border terrorism against India.

The two leaders had last met in September, 2005, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Dr Singh will have bilateral talks with the leaders of several other countries, including Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Lebanon, Mauritius and Mongolia, Indian officials said. He will also meet United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The Indian delegation to the summit includes Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and National Security Adviser M K Narayanan.

"If NAM is to be relevant in today's circumstances, it cannot afford to equivocate on the subject of terrorism," Dr Singh said in his intervention.

"A message must emanate from us that we are united in our desire to fight and eliminate the scourge of terrorism. We cannot allow the forces of intolerance and extremism to distract the world's attention from the vital concerns of our people---the problems of poverty, ignorance and disease," he declared.

Dr Singh said the Working Group could draw up a NAM Action Plan for Energy Security to address the energy challenges of the future.

"India would be prepared to coordinate such a group," he offered.

Dr Singh also said it was an opportune time for the grouping to take a major NAM initiative on Africa.

"African countries form the largest single grouping in NAM as well as in the United Nations General Assembly. The future of our planet is inextricably linked to the destiny of Africa," he said.

He said the initiative would focus on human resource and agricultural development. It would involve setting up of a mechanism, in cooperation with the African Union, to pool the assets of members for investment in the furue of Africa.

"We should be prepared to work together with other interested NAM countries on elaborating the NAM initiative on Africa," he said.

The Prime Minister reminded NAM members that they lived in an increasingly inter-dependent world.

"The challenge ahead is to promote a balanced and equitable management of this interdependence of nations," he said.

"As globalisation progresses, national and regional boundaries are becoming less and less relevant. Our problems are global, so must our solutions be," he stressed.

Praising the "creative and critical leadership role" played by the UN in shaping the international agenda in the past, Dr Singh said reforming the world body and revitalising the UNGA was a "pressing imperative." Arguing India's case for a permanent UNSC seat, he said, "The developing world must find its due representation among the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

"We must join hands with other like minded countries to promote democratisation of processes of global governance, ushering in a new global polity, based on the rule of law, reason and equity," he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that the members of NAM constituted more than half of the membership of the UN.

"Our collective strength is unmatched, and we must now unite behind a common and a fundamentally new vision of 'inclusive globalization,'" he said.

The Prime Minister said globalisation must be accompanied by a more balanced and equitable distribution of its benefits.

"In economic affairs, the biblical saying 'to him that hath shall be given' has wide applicability'", he said.

If such balance is not achieved, the global response to challenges would remain uneven and partial at best, he pointed out.

Turning to political issues, the Prime Minister noted that NAM had led the struggle against attempts to divide the world into ideologically irreconciliable blocs.

"We espoused peaceful co-existence and the higher cause of humanity beyond racial divisions. Today, we again confront the danger of the world being split along an artificially created cultural and religious divide," he said.

He said NAM, encompassing as it does, every religion professed by mankind, every ethnic group and ideological persuasion, was uniquely placed today, once again, to play the role of a bridge of understanding.

"Our cooperative world view is in itself a rejection of the notion of a 'clash of civilizations'. Rather, our message to the world should be that it is possible to work for a 'confluence of civilizations,'" he said.

Dr Singh said the emerging fault lines of the new ideological divide were nowhere more apparent today than in West Asia.

"We have just been witness to a tragic and pointless war in Lebanon. It has only sharpened the sense of alienation and resentment, brutalising a country that had just begun to reclaim its heritage of inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony after years of conflict," he said.

"We have just been witness to a tragic and pointless war in Lebanon. It has only sharpened the sense of alienation and resentment, brutalising a country that had just begun to reclaim its heritage of inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony after years of conflict," he said.

UNI

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