Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
Indian Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru coined the term ‘Non-Alignment’ during his speech in 1954 in
Colombo, Sri Lanka. The origin of the Non-aligned movement however can be traced
to the Asia-Africa conference hosted in Bandung, Indonesia in April 1955. During
this Conference, a 10-point ‘Declaration on Promotion of World Peace and
Cooperation’, incorporating the principles of the United Nations Charter and
Nehru’s five principles of Panchsheel, was unanimously adopted by the
participating countries, most of which were newly independent. The Communiqué of
the Conference underscored the need for developing countries to loosen their
economic dependence on the leading industrialized nations by providing technical
assistance to one another through the exchange of experts and technical
assistance for developmental projects, as well as the exchange of technological
know-how and the establishment of regional training and research institutes.
The first conference of the
Head of States and Governments of the Non-Aligned Countries was held six years
later in September 1961 largely through the initiative of President Josip Broz
Tito of Yugoslavia, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, President Sukarno of
Indonesia and the Indian Prime Minister Nehru.
Fifteen NAM Summits have so far been held, the last one being held at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
on 11th to 16th July 2009.
The NAM presently has
a
membership of 118 countries.