 Vanuatu was the birthplace of Melanesian socialism, a doctrine promoted by Prime Minister Father Walter Lini, combining socialism, Christianity and traditional Melanesian values, which gave Vanuatu and Cuba some degree of common ideological ground - although Melanesian socialism may be seen as closer to Christian communism than to Marxism.In 1983, however, ni-Vanuatu Foreign Minister Sela Molisa stated that Vanuatu's joining the Non-Aligned Movement was born of a wish for neutrality, and that "the ni-Vanuatu government and the Vanua'aku Pati do not adhere to any ideology".Lini lost office in 1991, and, under his successor Maxime Carlot Korman, his country's policy of engaging with countries viewed with suspicion by the West -notably Cuba, Libya and the Soviet Union- was allowed to fade.