Indian Left Party Strongly Criticizes US Strategic Designs

New Delhi, June 12, IRNA – The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) strongly criticized the US strategic pivot to the Asia Pacific region. Asking the UPA government to realize the dangers of involving itself in a strategic alliance with the US, the CPM urged to firmly turn down any such role in the American strategic designs in Asia. The CPM, in a statement issued here today, after a meeting of party’s Central Committee (CC) met in New Delhi on June 9-10, said: “The US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta visited Delhi in order to involve India in the United States strategic pivot to the Asia-Pacific region. In the words of Panetta, India should be a “lynchpin” in the US strategy in Asia. The CC called upon the UPA government not to fall in line with the US-NATO and the Persian Gulf states on the developments in Syria. The Indian government should not become party to moves to stoke civil war conditions and destabilize Syria, it added. Criticizing the UPA government’s steps to curtail oil purchases from Iran, the CPM said that it goes against the vital interests of the country with regard to energy security./end