The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu will lead the Indian delegation at the 18th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to be held at Baku, Azerbaijan on 25-26 October.
The Summit will focus on a whole gamut of contemporary issues such as Terrorism, threats to peace and security, UN reform, climate change, sustainable development, economic governance and south-south cooperation.
In his interventions, the Vice President is expected to highlight the need for world community to come together to combat the threat of terrorism and the imminent need to democratize and reform multilateral bodies like the United Nations Security Council to make them stronger and more representative.
Theme of 18th Summit
The theme for the XVIII NAM Summit is “Upholding the Bandung Principles to ensure concerted and adequate response to the challenges of contemporary world”.
The Ten Principles of Bandung, a political statement encapsulating the need to promote world peace and cooperation were formulated at the Asian-African Conference in 1955.
The theme is significant as it relates to the forthcoming 65th anniversary of Bandung Principles in 2020 and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Movement in 2021.
About Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was created and founded during the collapse of the colonial system and the independence struggles of the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America and other regions of the world and at the height of the Cold War. While some meetings with a third-world perspective were held before 1955, historians consider that the Bandung Asian-African Conference is the most immediate antecedent to the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement. This Conference was held in Bandung on April 18-24, 1955 and gathered 29 Heads of States belonging to the first post-colonial generation of leaders from the two continents with the aim of identifying and assessing world issues at the time and pursuing out joint policies in international relations.
Six years after Bandung, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries was founded on a wider geographical basis at the First Summit Conference of Belgrade, which was held on September 1-6, 1961. The Conference was attended by 25 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Yemen, Myanmar, Cambodia, Srilanka, Congo, Cuba, Cyprus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Yugoslavia.
India is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which was established in 1961 with 29 members. It has since grown to 120 members to become one of the largest groupings of nation-states
The ten principles of Bandung
- Respect of fundamental human rights and of the objectives and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
- Respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations.
- Recognition of the equality among all races and of the equality among all nations, both large and small.
- Non-intervention or non-interference into the internal affairs of another -country.
- Respect of the right of every nation to defend itself, either individually or collectively, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.
- A. Non-use of collective defense pacts to benefit the specific interests of any of the great powers.
B. Non-use of pressures by any country against other countries. - Refraining from carrying out or threatening to carry out aggression, or from using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any country.
- Peaceful solution of all international conflicts in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.
- Promotion of mutual interests and of cooperation.
- Respect of justice and of international obligations.
