1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (Serbo-Croatian: Конференција шефова држава или влада несврстаних земаља / Konferencija šefova država ili vlada nesvrstanih zemalja, Macedonian: Конференција на шефови на држави или влади на неврзани земји, Slovene: Konferenca voditeljev držav ali vlad neuvrščenih držav) on 1–6 September 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia was the first conference of the Non-Aligned Movement. A major contributing factor to the organization of the conference was the process of decolonization of a number of African countries in the 1960s. Some therefore called it the ″Third World's Yalta″ in reference to 1945 Yalta Conference.
Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement | |
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Meeting at the House of the National Assembly | |
Host country | Yugoslavia |
Date | 1–6 September 1961 |
Venue(s) | House of the National Assembly |
Cities | Belgrade |
Participants | Afghanistan Algeria |
Chair | Josip Broz Tito (President of Yugoslavia) |
Follows | Bandung Conference |
Precedes | 2nd Summit (Cairo, United Arab Republic) |
Twenty-five countries in total participated in Belgrade Conference, while 3 countries, Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador, were observers. The preparatory meeting of Non-Aligned Countries took place earlier that year in Cairo June 5–12, 1961. One of the issues was division of the newly independent countries over the Congo Crisis which led to a rift and creation of the conservative and anti-radical Brazzaville Group and radical nationalist Casablanca Group. All members of the Casablanca Group attended the conference, including Algeria, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Morocco and the United Arab Republic, while none of the Brazzaville Group was present. The summit was followed by the 2nd Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cairo in 1964. The 1962 Cairo Conference on the Problems of Developing Countries was a direct follow-up of the Belgrade Summit at which Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Senegal and Yugoslavia will work on preparation for the upcoming UNCTAD conference of the ECOSOC.