Indian Ocean: Zone of Peace

On the continent of Africa, which lies just across the Indian Ocean, there are some remaining citadels of racism. We are confident that it is only a matter of time before the forces of liberation and freedom against racialist and minority regimes will emerge victorious provided of course, that there is unity in the liberation movements.

Since the days of Mahatma Gandhi, who raised his voice in the cause of human dignity, India has consistently and actively supported the liberation struggles in Africa. With the African countries, which have emerged from the chains of colonialism, we have an ongoing programme of economic and technical co-operation.

This brings me to the question of the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace. You must be aware of the initiative of Sri Lanka which has led to a declaration by the United Nations to this effect. Despite the overwhelming support of the littoral States, there has not been much progress towards realization of this objective. In fact, with the functioning of a full-fledged naval base at Diego Garcia, the situation has, if anything worsened. These new and persistent attempts to dominate strategic points in the Indian Ocean are inevitably seen by the littoral coun­tries as unacceptable attempts at domination in effect, as a form of neocolonialism.

We are determined to work for elimination of foreign military bases from the Indian Ocean, so that it can truly emerge as a zone of peace. This is bound to be a major concern of the non­aligned countries which will be meeting at the summit level in Colombo in August, 1976.