Non-Aligned Movement founded at Belgrade
- Date
- 1–6 September 1961
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Global South (Belgrade, Yugoslavia)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
Drawing on the principles agreed at Bandung in 1955, the Non-Aligned Movement was formally established at its first summit conference in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, from 1 to 6 September 1961.
The initiative was led by Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Indonesia's Sukarno, and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, with twenty-five states attending. The movement committed its members to refuse alignment with either the United States-led or Soviet-led blocs, to support decolonisation and national self-determination, to oppose racism and apartheid, and to pursue disarmament and economic justice. NAM became the principal institutional voice of the Global South during the Cold War, eventually growing to more than 100 member states. Latin American participation expanded over successive summits—Cuba hosted the 1979 summit and chaired the movement—anchoring the region within a global coalition of developing nations that pressed for a New International Economic Order and reform of the world economic order through the 1970s and 1980s.
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Empires active in 1–6 September 1961
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Construction of the Berlin Wall13 August 1961
- Founding of the People's Republic of China1 October 1949
- Establishment of Apartheid in South Africa1948
- Independence and Partition of British India14–15 August 1947
- Iranian RevolutionJanuary–February 1979
- Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika1985–1991 (from 11 March 1985)
Further reading
The wider story
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