Kampala: Pakistan is blatantly misusing the platform of Non-Aligned Movement for false and malicious propaganda against India, a senior Indian minister told NAM members here.

Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, the Minister of State (MoS) holding dual charges in the education and external affairs ministries, made the remark while addressing the 19th NAM Summit-Ministerial Meeting in the Ugandan capital.

Uganda has assumed the NAM presidency for the period of 2024-27.

“While our focus is on coming together to strengthen NAM collectively, we have been exposed to the unfortunate, misplaced, predictable and blatant misuse of this august platform by Pakistan, as it propagates false and malicious propaganda against my country,” Mr Singh said.

“Any interference in India’s internal affairs is totally unacceptable and we completely reject it,” the minister said in a strongly-worded speech.

Close on the heels of the African Union’s successful induction into the G20 during India’s Presidency, an African country captaining two important international bodies is a clear reflection of the collective strength of the continent, he said, referring to Uganda now heading both G-77 and NAM.

“This is clearly Africa’s moment,” Mr Singh said.

As a founding member, India remains invested in NAM, and hopes that this Movement will voice the hopes and aspirations of the young people.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks that “the world is interconnected, as well as interdependent and we are living in the era of multilateralism,” Singh said NAM is one of the world’s largest multilateral fora mobilising support for the Global South.

“It is crucial that we defend and nurture NAM’s tradition of independence, so that we set our own agenda. We are happy to see Uganda’s focus on some of the key issues of importance to the Global South, especially those relating to our development agenda, human trafficking and drug smuggling and the larger issues of peace and security,” he said.