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The Relevance of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)

The Relevance of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in today's world.

The journey of NAM concept from beginning to today and how India imbibed it in its foreign policy.

The 19th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held in Kampala, Uganda with the theme :'Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence.' 'Kampala declaration was adopted at the summit, Under it, the member countries, committed to strengthen the UN as the main multilateral organization and agreed to make collective efforts to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) Which provides a global framework for financing  sustainable development by aligning all financing policies with social, economic,and environmental aspects. It also strongly condemned the illegal Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.                                                          Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) origin: The Asia-Africa Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955. NAM was created during the independence struggles of Asia, Africa, Latin America and other regions of the world during the Cold War era. A important role was played in this process by the then Heads of State of Egypt, India, Ghana, Indonesia and Yugoslavia, who later also became the founding fathers of the NAM.

The basic idea was to declare themselves as "nonaligned" from either of the two military blocks NATO (led by USA ) and the Warsaw Pact( led by then USSR). "Ten Principles of Bandung" proclaimed during Bandung Conference. NAM’s first conference was held in  Belgrade in 1961. Now, It has 121 members - South Sudan became the new member(121st) of NAM.

The policy of NAM was based on the five principles of Panchsheel (principles for the conduct of international relations, signed between India and China in 1954).The NAM neither have a formal founding charter or treaty, nor does it have a permanent secretariat in any country. It is a concept, a idea and a spirit.                                    Relevance of NAM:                                1) Reforms and democratization of UNO: NAM emphasize on expediting reform of the United Nations Security Council to make it a more transparent, representative and so more democratic organ of the United Nations.                                                                  2)Safeguarding Sovereignty: NAM countries support the principles of self-determination, respect for territorial integrity and safeguarding the independence and autonomy of member countries.      3)Included In foreign policy: Many developing countries like India follow the NAM policy in their foreign policy approach. India always talk about multilateralism and advocates for UN Reforms to represent the present day relevancy.                                       4) A Unifying force: NAM is still relevant as a strict measure to prevent colonization and imperialism of small and developing countries and a connect between countries which were victims of colonialism. Here we can take the example of India's voting in favour of Mauritius on Diego Garcia issue in UN against USA and UK inspite of India's strategic relationships with USA and U.K.

5)A Bridge for South-South Cooperation: It acts as a connecting bridge for developing countries to come together and discuss common issues.  

6)Symbol of Multilateralism: NAM promotes the principles of multilateralism and peaceful coexistence. Like India believe in the ideology of 'Vasudev Kutumbhakam'. The Initiative like One Sun One World One Grid was put forth by the Indian Prime minister Sh. Narendra Modi.

Conclusion: NAM is very much relevant today as well and we have seen it during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war when India maintain a very neutral stand inspite of huge pressure from close allies like USA, UK, France and other Quad members. When the world was dividing in two groups, the NAM was a hope and encouraging force for countries to -'not to be a part of the two groups and provided a third option to be neutral. This spirit should be maintain to establish a lasting peace in the today's much more Geopolitics world.

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