Nonalignment and Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy SYNOPSIS COMMENTARY

COMMENTARY The 1945-1990 Cold War era was characterised by the division of the world into two competing blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union. [...] As countries big and small navigate through the complexities of a fluid and uncertain geopolitical landscape, the question of nonalignment’s relevance in shaping the foreign policy strategies of countries like Sri Lanka looms large. [...] In a recent foreign policy forum in Sri Lanka, a panel of ambassadors and experts discussed the contemporary relevance of the nation’s policy of nonalignment. [...] The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) emerged in 1961 during the height of the Cold War, with its primary objective being the advancement of the economic and political interests of developing Third World nations. [...] While doing this, it also advocated for the “inalienable rights of the people of Palestine to self-determination and the realisation of an independent sovereign state of Palestine”.