Indian Ocean -- Zone of Peace
The Colombo Summit unanimously expressed its faith in the United Nations system and the determination of the non-aligned to employ their increased strength in the U.N. for the promotion of the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter.
India co-operated closely with other interested countries in an area which is of vital concern to us, namely, on the proposal to declare the Indian Ocean a zone of peace. The Colombo summit calls for the elimination of great power rivalries and competition from this area as well as for the removal of bases, military installations and nuclear weapons from the Indian Ocean. In condemning the base at Diego Garcia the Colombo declaration calls upon all littoral and hinterland States to desist from membership of military alliances and pacts conceived in the context of great power rivalry. It is emphasized that concerted action is now necessary for convening a conference on Indian Ocean with the participation of littoral and hinterland States as well as the great powers and major maritime users of the Indian Ocean.
The conference warmly welcomed the reunification of Vietnam. It hailed the victories of the peoples of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in their struggle against imperialism and reaffirmed support for the economic reconstruction of these countries which have suffered for a long time.
New Economic Order
Among the more visible successes of the non-aligned group has been their growing co-operation in the struggle to establish a just and equitable international economic order. Since its very inception the movement has had a strong economic component based on the realisation that political independence without economic emancipation would remain incomplete. The non-aligned countries, no doubt, have widely different historical and political backgrounds and encompass, among themselves, a wide spectrum in their individual endowment of natural resources. Nonetheless, they have over the year developed a commonality of economic interests which have greatly facilitated joint and concerted action in various international forums.
In the wider group of all developing countries popularly known as the Group of 77, the non-aligned have acted as a catalyst for the enunciation of new ideas and for the evolution of common policies.
There are three basic elements in the struggle of non-aligned countries for the creation of a new international economic order. These are the need to remove economic imbalances between the rich and the poor countries, the need for co-operation among developing countries in the face of pressure exercised by
industrialised countries and the assertion by all developing countries of their-sovereign right to determine their own plans and priorities for developrnent. This had led to several concrete initiatives.
After the 1961 summit in Belgrade, it led to the first UNCTAD conference, held in Geneva in 1964, and after the fourth summit, held in Algiers, it led to the call for the sixth and seventh special sessions of the General Assembly of U.N. which adopted the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States as well as the declaration on the new international economic order.