Backgrounder: Basic facts about Non-Aligned Movement

The 14th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is being held on Sept. 11-16 in Havana, capital of Cuba.

The following are some basic facts about NAM.

NAM was born in the Cold War era. The notion of non-alignment was put forward in 1956 at a meeting between then Yugoslavia President Josip Broz Tito, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Indian Prime Minister Jawwaharlal Nehru due to concerns over the negative impact the serious confrontation between the Eastern and Western military alliances had on the vast number of small and medium-sized nations.

In September 1961, the first conference of Non-aligned Heads of States, at which 25 countries were represented, was convened in Belgrade, at the initiative of Yugoslavia, Egypt, India and Indonesia, marking the beginning of NAM.

Subsequent conferences involved an ever-increasing participation by developing countries. NAM now groups 116 countries, all of which are developing countries.

The movement has a unique form of administration as it is non-hierarchical, rotational and inclusive, providing all members, regardless of size and importance, with an opportunity to participate in global decision-making and world politics.

Without headquarters, constitution and internal secretariat, NAM holds such regular meetings as summit and conference of foreign ministers.

The summit has been held every three years since 1970.

The practice of NAM is to make all decisions by consensus. As the movement is made up of states with differing ideologies and purposes, consensus can enhance the solidarity and unity of the movement.

China became a NAM observer in September 1992.

Source: Xinhua