Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement reaffirms its even greater relevance today
By Adriano José Timossi
Political leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), including several heads of state or government, gathered on the island of Margarita in Venezuela, to attend the 17th NAM Summit on 17-18 September 2016, under the theme “Peace, Sovereignty and Solidarity for Development”.
The Summit marked the handover of the Presidency of the bloc from Iran to Venezuela, which will be leading this large political group of developing countries for a period of three years until 2019. The Summit was preceded by a Senior Official Meeting held on 13-14 September and a Ministerial Meeting on 15-16 September. These two meetings finalized the discussions on the two main outcome documents – the “Final Document” of the NAM Summit and the Declaration of Margarita – which were adopted on 18 September at the closing ceremony.
In his opening remarks, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro expressed his deepest gratitude to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for the support provided to the handover of this “powerful world movement” and his capable chairmanship which contributed to revitalising the movement in the past four years. Maduro said that the choosing of the venue of Isla Margarita had a historical meaning. “200 years ago the former colonial power was expelled from this Island by Simon Bolivar bringing independence and freedom from the powerful Spanish empire”, he said. “Since then this land was declared free from all the empires.”
Maduro also gave a historical overview of the development of the Movement whose origins were in the Bandung and Belgrade conferences. The Bandung Conference held in 1955 in Indonesia was the first meeting of Asian and African leaders, and it adopted the 10 principles of Bandung. The Belgrade Conference in the former Yugoslav Republic in 1961 created the NAM as the driving force of solidarity among developing countries in their fight against colonialism, their call for promoting a New International and Economic Order, the fight against racism, refusal of alignment to any dominant power and their need to build a world of peace and security in international relations.
NAM was a driving force for a multipolar order, against the bipolar period, which reigned over the so-called Cold War dominated by the imminent threat of war and destruction. “It was also an expression of South-South Cooperation which represents the backbone of NAM”, he concluded, calling for unity and a revitalized NAM acting to promote the very key values of the group.
The Final Document, which has over 200 pages and 919 paragraphs, provides a comprehensive review of the current and fragile state of world affairs, with deep security and economic problems in various NAM members (including Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine), and re-establishes the role of an even more relevant and united NAM acting collectively in the international context to prevent war and promote peace, solidarity and development for all. It includes a review of challenges such as overcoming poverty, climate change, south-south cooperation, health, peace and security, food security, UN reform, corruption, drug trafficking, fight against terrorism as well as a reaffirmation of the key principles that guide the bloc. It also addresses issues of common concern in the regions of the group and international organizations such as the UN.
The Summit also adopted the Declaration of Margarita. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that the Declaration of Margarita “set the basis for a renewed NAM, capable of addressing the challenges of 2016 and forward.”
President Maduro enumerated some of the key points in the declaration including the call upon NAM members for unified and stronger efforts not only aiming at the reform of the UN but also for its re-foundation, with the aim of promoting its democratization and to reach this goal, he called for making full use of NAM’s leadership and NAM’s large number of votes.
“The UN was born after the 1945 war, and now it needs a deep transformation. There have been talks about reform, but we’d rather talk about re-foundation, a new foundation of the UN system”, he said. The new chair of the NAM bloc also called for a return to the longstanding aspiration of a new international economic order to be built in closer cooperation with BRICS and other recently emerged regional blocks.
President Maduro said the Declaration also called for prioritizing the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and he urged NAM members to work together to reach this goal. He called on NAM members to set up a Communications Agenda at the international level, welcoming some important developments such as the multi-state Telesur TV in the Latin American and Caribbean region created under the leadership of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The Margarita declaration also calls for the Dialogue of Civilizations to promote a culture of peace and against intervention. Maduro stressed “tolerance and respect between societies and nations”. Climate change is also one of the key elements, as the members of NAM are the ones most affected despite being the ones that least caused the global warming.
The twenty one points of the Margarita Declaration also addressed other issues including Palestine; the Cuban blockade; South-South Cooperation; strengthening and revitalization of the movement; the right to self-determination; terrorism; appointment of the Secretary General; refugees and migrants; youth; women; peace and security.
President Maduro also recalled in his opening speech the importance of the South Commission, which had been brainstormed on the sidelines of the Harare Summit in 1986 and later implemented in 1987. “The South Commission did an extraordinary work”, he said, while welcoming the participation of the South Centre delegation at the NAM Summit. The South Commission had presented plans, proposals and recommendations that could be reviewed and implemented by the bloc. In this regard, President Maduro suggested the establishment of a South Secretariat, as proposed by the South Commission, to act as a mechanism of coordination of NAM and as a mechanism of articulation with G77 and China. Also, he proposed the establishment of a Bank of the South for development and finance of the developing countries. A third proposal was the establishment of a joint project with the FAO for food security and food sovereignty.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani who had presided over the 120-members bloc over the past four years, urged strong unity among independent states. At the opening ceremony, he said, “at the current juncture, NAM member states more than ever require solidarity, convergence and coordination. The truth is that as a bloc that comprises about two-thirds of the United Nations members, we are an undeniable part of the solutions to the challenges facing today’s world.”
The Iranian leader also recalled that the founding principles of NAM included the need to guarantee the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries and that NAM will help promote the national interests, good-neighbourliness, and sustainable security and development throughout the world. “By following these principles, many of the fundamental problems and challenges as well as serious existing crises can be resolved,” he remarked. He also stated that “the violation of the national sovereignty of developing countries is being carried out under various covers and forms,” a serious cause of concern.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a video message congratulated the government of Venezuela and praised the work of the NAM leaders in raising awareness and mobilizing the international community to work for world peace and sustainable development. “Multilaterism is the most effective way to address global challenges”, he asserted.
President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, which will take the presidency of the G77 and China in New York in 2017, called for united action against fiscal paradises. He said that “fiscal paradises are the maximum expression of capitalism without face and without responsibility, without transparency, without patria and without humanity”. The fight against tax evasion and corruption cannot be done in isolated fashion. “We need to get global action to end this form of wild capitalism”, he said. President Correa also called for unity and actions with the most vulnerable and marginalized people, with the aim of changing the current global order. “The current world order is unfair, immoral, where only the strong survive, where everything works with capital and not in favour of the human being and with the functions of the markets and not the people. We need to have a world order where societies are above the interests of the markets”, stated the Ecuadorian president.
Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, said that NAM was created to fight against colonialism in the 20th century but today, “our fight is against neo-colonialism, wars and soft coups”. Morales announced his intention to present the candidacy of Bolivia to host the NAM presidency after Azerbaijan (which will take over from Venezuela in 2019).
President Raul Castro of Cuba, the country which chaired the NAM twice, beginning in 1979 and 2006, said that his country will continue demanding the lifting of the damaging economic, financial and trade embargo imposed on his country by the United States five decades ago. The Cuban leader will also demand full sovereignty of the territory illegally occupied by the Naval base of the US in Guantanamo. “Cuba won’t renounce any of its principles, it won’t give in from its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals,” said Castro. “There will be no normal relations until the two demands are fulfilled.”
The Vice President of India, Mr. Hamid Ansari, recalled how world leaders at the summit in the UN in 2005 had called for urgent reform of the Security Council to make the UN “fit for the 21st century”. Reiterating the need for such reforms, he said: “Today we need to ask whether an organization designed in 1945 with just 51 member states, is really appropriate to serve the needs of an international community that now comprises 193 independent sovereign states facing 21st century challenges to their citizens’ well-being and security.”
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe said that a strong sense of unity and international co-operation are the biggest weapons that small nations have to fight unilateralism that threatens their development. President Mugabe also said the bloc had a decades-old tradition of advancing the causes of underdeveloped countries, and its founding principles were needed now more than ever in the face of interference by big powers in the affairs of emerging economies.
“Poverty is a threat to international peace and security and the wellbeing of people who are at the centre of Agenda 2030. We should therefore continue to speak out against unilateral actions that undermine efforts to address poverty and underdevelopment,” President Mugabe said.
The Final Document and the Declaration of Margarita were adopted by consensus on 18 September at the closing session. A declaration in support of Palestine was also adopted. In his speech, President Maduro concluded the Summit with a commitment to revitalizing the movement. He also referred to the 200-page final outcome that had just been adopted as a document that has “written the history of the struggle of humanity of the peoples from the South for their right to peace.”
In the next three years, the NAM will be led by Venezuela. It will coordinate with a troika comprising itself as the current Chairman , Iran (the past president) and Azerbaijan who will be the next chair of the bloc.
Adriano José Timossi is Senior Programme Officer of the Global Governance for Development Programme (GGDP) of the South Centre.
Information on the NAM Summit can be obtained from: http://namvenezuela.org/. The Declaration and the Final Document can be obtained from: http://namvenezuela.org/?page_id=6330.
