Non-aligned Movement

Reports are doing the rounds that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Venezuela next month.

The NAM summit which was scheduled on July 14-16 was postponed to September 17-18 to be held in Margarita Land. Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro will assume the pro tempore presidency from Iran during that meeting, expected to be attended by all 120 member countries of the bloc.

It is said that Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez will extend another invitation to the Indian Prime Minister.

If Modi skips the summit, it will be the first absence by an Indian PM since the 1979 summit in Havana. Founded in September, 1961, amid the collapse of the colonial system and the liberation struggles of peoples in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other regions worldwide, NAM plays a fundamental role in preserving world peace.

The Non-Aligned Movement was formed during the Cold War, largely on the initiative of then-Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, as an Organisation of States that did not seek to formally align themselves with either the United States or the Soviet Union, but sought to remain independent or neutral.

The basic concept for the group originated in 1955 during discussions that took place at the Asia-Africa Bandung Conference held in Indonesia.

Subsequently, a preparatory meeting for the First NAM Summit Conference was held in Cairo, Egypt from 5-12 June 1961. Participants determined the criteria for membership.

These were as follows: The country should have adopted an independent policy based on the coexistence of States with different political and social systems and on non-alignment or should be showing a trend in favor of such a policy.

The country concerned should be consistently supporting the Movements for national independence; The country should not be a member of a multilateral military alliance concluded in the context of Great Power conflicts.

If a country has a bilateral military agreement with a Great Power, or is a member of a regional defense pact, the agreement or pact should not be one deliberately concluded in the context of Great Power conflicts;

If it has conceded military bases to a Foreign Power the concession should not have been made in the context of Great Power conflicts. The First NAM Summit Conference took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961