The three major objectives of Nehru's foreign policy were:

a) To preserve hard earned sovereignty.

b) Protect territorial integrity.

c) Promote rapid economic development.

During Nehru's era, a basic objective of India's foreign policy was extending support to colonised and newly de-colonised countries in their struggle against colonialism. Another objective was that of promoting peace. Nehru constantly emphasized that peaceful co- existence of countries with different ideologies and differing systems, was a necessity and believed that nobody had a monopoly on the truth and pluralism was a fact of life. In this context, he outlined which were called "Panchsheel" of India's Foreign Policy; these were

1. mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty,

2. nonaggression, five principles

3. non-interference in each other's internal affairs,

4. equality and mutual benefit, and

5. Peaceful co-existence.

Non Alignment Policy

In the spirit of the right of India and other nations to have an independent an equal voice in international affairs, the idea of non-alignment was shaped by Nehru. The division of world into two hostile blocs after World War-II provided the immediate context for the emergence of

the non-aligned movement. It was argued by Nehru that newly independent countries of Asia and Africa had nothing to gain by joining the military blocs of the big powers. This idea eventually culminated in the Non Aligned Movement (NAM)