As a former member of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet, Mr. Jaswant Singh had held many portfolios. He belongs to the same party - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - as Narendra Modi, who as "its prime ministerial candidate" may soon become India's next leader.

Mr. Singh wants to see changes in India's foreign politics. Yet what he wants to get done will also be a tall order. Not only "India must move beyond its allegiance to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)", perhaps India should leave this outmoded group altogether. Today India is among the world's ten largest economies. The NAM, conceived mainly by Jawaharlal Nehru, founded in 1961, in the depths of the Cold War, aimed to unite countries that did not wish to be allied with either the West led by the US or the Soviet-dominated eastern bloc.

It represents the world's poorer states and has identified globalisation, sustainable development and the eradication of poverty as some of its main causes. Yet it has failed to deal with geopolitical issues decisively and some NAM leaders had in the past shown a good deal of artistry in manipulating power politics in countless of conflicts, that are still playing out to this day.

Mr. Singh, as foreign minister in 2000 had welcomed a resolution passed by NAM which recommended that countries within the organisation, ruled by military governments should be expelled. He did not mention Pakistan by name, stressing only that his initiative was intended to isolate all military regimes within the NAM. He also insisted that the movement should commit itself uncompromisingly to the principles of democracy and the rule of law. Today he is still obsessed with Pakistan and fears China's rise to power. He is urging the world to curb the export of jihadism from Islamabad to Kabul and to prevent Beijing from relaunching attacks on India's "Himalayan border".

If India decides to stay within the NAM, perhaps it is time to reform the movement. Some of the 120 members - Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and Pakistan - are in India's sphere of interests and their stability can't be indifferent to Delhi. As 36 out of Asia's 45 nations are members of the NAM, and many of them in the "Pacific Ocean region", India should reach out to them, if it wants to forge "a strategic alliance that supports peace" in the area.

It is a good idea that India "welcome – and foster – the thaw in relations between the US and Iran", but what can India do to help? Meanwhile he advocates for a "forward movement in US-India cooperation" and "technology transfer – military, industrial, and scientific, including with regard to space". He ought to know that red tape in India is the biggest obstacle to progress. Let's hope that Mr. Singh's dream will come true one day - the creation of "a partnership between the world’s two largest democracies capable of playing a key stabilizing role in South Asia and beyond".

