Del Pino said he had visited Margarita and seen that opposition hopes the Non-Aligned Movement summit would be a failure, making President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government look weak and isolated, were being dashed.
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“In the 21st Century, GNB plays a pivotal role, being a strategic partner for the public”, said Retno in Venezuela on NAM Summit.
One notable no-show is India’s Prime Minister Modi-the first time an Indian Prime minister hasn’t attended since 1979.
A group of five leaders, including India’s Prime Minister Nehru, and Yugoslavia’s President Tito, felt the grouping would help them resist pressure to ally themselves with either the Soviet Union or the United States.
He further said that terror is something which impedes everything. Mr. Ansari stressing on the issue said, that each of the 120 countries of the movement has the same agenda of development but for that we need peace and solidarity.
Asked if there has been a shift in India’s foreign policy with the strengthening of the Indo-US partnership and if NAM has become less important, Ansari said there has been no such shift.
On whether there has been a change in India’s foreign policy, the Vice President said: “Our foreign policy, like domestic policies, is meant to achieve a set of objectives and to determine the best methodology for doing so”. The methodology underwent changes in the 70s, 80s, and 90.
He said that development is the key priority for each of the countries in the NAM group, and that accordingly the theme of peace, sovereignty and solidarity for development has been chosen for the summit. While many heads of state or government are expected to skip the Venezuela NAM summit, most major countries have sent at least their foreign minister.
The Non-Aligned Movement came into being 55 years ago when leaders of 25 developing countries met at the 1961 Belgrade Conference.
The membership of NAM comprises 53 countries from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean and 2 from Europe (Belarus, Azerbaijan).
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“It’s another failure for the opposition, who were trying to present a non-existing image of the country, aided by unpatriotic global media trying to create a view of Venezuela like they did in Libya, in Iraq”, he said.
