NaMo Ditches NAM, But Venezuela is Counting on PM Modi’s Visit

This will be the second time that Indian Prime Minister won’t attend the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was extended an invitation to attend the event by her Venezuelan counterpart Delcy Rodriguez in Delhi on Thursday. (Photo: AP)

Venezuela is counting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit at the Non-Aligned Movement meeting, Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Delcy Rodriguez said, on Thursday.

Rodriguez told The Hindu:

India is a founder of the Non-Aligned movement, so for Venezuela, it would be really important to have Prime Minister Modi there. We are hopeful he will come.

Amid reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit to be held in Venezuela next month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was extended an invitation to attend the event by her Venezuelan counterpart Delcy Rodriguez in Delhi on Thursday.

The last time an Indian prime minister did not attend a NAM Summit was in 1979 when Charan Singh was the caretaker Prime Minister.

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Unlike his predecessors, in all his public addresses, Modi did not refer to NAM as a ‘core principle’ of Indian foreign policy. So it’s highly likely that Swaraj or Vice President Hamid Ansari will be attending the summit.

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar hinted on Wednesday that the government’s policy is veering away from multilateral bodies like NAM. The Hindu quoted him as saying, 

Blocs and alliances are less relevant today and the world is moving towards a loosely arranged order. 

S. Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary

In a clear reference to the United States who has imposed strict sanctions on Venezuela, Rodriguez said, “At this time, there is one power who wants to control the whole world. They don’t respect the law, and we must fight that together in NAM.”

Earlier, a 14-member delegation including Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum and President of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Eulogio del Pino and Venezuelan Vice Minister for Asia, Middle East and Oceania, Felix Plasencia met Sushma Swaraj when they came to India.

Stating that Rodriguez held a substantive bilateral meeting with Sushma Swaraj, Vikas Swarup said:

They discussed the whole gamut of bilateral issues and views were exchanged on various multilateral issues, including UNSC Reform, UN Peacekeeping and terrorism.

The ministers have also agreed to move ahead for an early finalisation of various agreements in different areas, including extradition treaty, double tax avoidance agreement (DTAA), mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) on criminal matters and air services agreement.

(Source: IANS, The Hindu)