US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday slammed the concept of non-alignment, ridiculing it as obsolete and antiquated and said it is not appropriate for a country like India to cling on to this.
In remarks at the 32nd anniversary of the United States-India Business Council, Rice said, "I know that there are some who still talk about non-alignment in foreign policy," but argued that while it may have made some sense during the Cold War when the world was divided into rival camps, it just didn't make sense anymore.
"Now the question that I would ask is, as fellow democracies with so many interests and principles in common at a time when people of every culture, every race, and every religion are embracing political and economic liberty, what is the meaning of non-alignment?"
Rice asserted that "it has lost its meaning. One is aligned not with the interests and power of one bloc or another, but with the values of a common humanity. How can we not afford to join each other, on a global scale, to support opportunity and prosperity and justice and dignity and health and education and freedom and democracy?"
She acknowledged that there would be differences, "differences of policy, differences of tactics, from time to time, differences of strategy."
"But with India, "she argued, "a good and strong emerging multiethnic democracy, there will not be differences about what we are trying to achieve -- a world that is freer, a world that is more prosperous, and a world that is more just."
Rice said: "We can do this not just bilaterally, but multilaterally as well, working with other free nations like Japan and Australia and Korea and our allies in Europe, working with other large multiethnic, multi-religious democracies like Brazil and Indonesia and South Africa."
"Together," she declared, "we can strive for effective, principles multilateralism, but based on our common values: to shape and international order in accordance with those values that we hold so dear."
Rice conceded that "it's not going to be easy, but it's a challenge that is worthy of two great democracies, worthy of India and the United States. It is a challenge to which I think we are equal. I know it is a challenge to which we are committed."
