Part Four
NON-ALIGNMENT IN A CHANGING WORLD
It in the fifties and the sixties, the main thrust of non-alignment was against the division of the world into two "cold war" camps endangering world peace as well as the independence of countries, today it is directed against the iniquitous and explosive division of the world into the developed and the developing nations. To narrow and eventually to bridge this gap and to establish balanced and co-operative relationship between the developed and developing "world" is a principal objective of non-alignment. The establishment of a just economic balance between these two categories of nations is essential not only from the point of social justice and human equality but for the creation of peaceful and stable world order free from the threat of violent upheavals.
The Indian policy of non-alignment has not been one of equidistance or equal proximity to the great powers. It has been one of promoting international co-operation.
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14
Contribution of Colombo Summit
Though non-alignment as a movement dates back to the first summit conference held in Belgrade in 1961, its policy and principles had been spelt out much earlier by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Even before India achieved independence in his historic announcement on the future directions of India's foreign policy, made on September 7, 1946, during the days of the Interim Government, Nehru said:
We propose as far as possible to keep away from the power blocs or groups, aligned against one another, which have led in the past to world wars and which may again lead to disasters on an even vaster scale. We believe that peace and freedom are indivisible and the denial of freedom anywhere must endanger freedom elsewhere and lead to conflict and war. We are particularly interested in the emancipation of colonial and dependent countries and peoples and in the recognition in theory and practice of equal opportunities for all races.