By IANS
New Delhi : Reacting to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's contention that non-alignment has lost its relevance, India Friday reiterated its "firm and abiding commitment" to the ideals of the non-aligned movement.
"There can be no question of India's firm and abiding commitment to non-alignment," external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said when asked to comment on Rice's remarks at the 32nd anniversary celebrations of the United States India Business Council (USIBC) in Washington Thursday.
"The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) played a significant role in ending apartheid and colonialism," he said in a statement.
"Today, its relevance continues in promoting South-South cooperation and the democratization of the international system. India remains committed to its ideals," he stressed.
In her remarks, Rice said that non-alignment had lost its meaning.
"I know there are some who still talk about non-alignment in foreign policy. But maybe that made sense during the Cold War when the world really was divided into rival camps," she said while urging India to "move past old ways of thinking".
"It has lost its meaning," she went on. "One is aligned not with the interests and power of one bloc or another but with the values of a common humanity."
Instead, India should join fellow democracies in promoting common values of freedom and justice.
"Now the question that I would ask is, as fellow democracies with so many interests and principles in common at a time when people of every culture, every race, and every religion are embracing political and economic liberty, what is the meaning of non-alignment?
"How can we not afford to join each other, on a global scale, to support opportunity and prosperity and justice and dignity and health and education and freedom and democracy?" she asked.
While going to Havana to attend the 14th NAM summit in September last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asserted the relevance of NAM in the post-Cold War world saying it was a "state of mind" and urged the 116-member grouping to play a reconciling role in a "highly uncertain, insecure world".
"Non-alignment is a state of mind, to think independently about our options, to widen our developmental choices," Singh told journalists travelling with him on the flight from Brasilia to Havana. "In that sense, non-alignment is as relevant today as it was before."
India has been one of the founder members of NAM and has taken part in all its summits since it was founded in Bandung in 1955.