60th Anniversary Additional Commemorative Non-Aligned Meeting is the 11–12 October 2021

Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in the aftermath o ...

commemorative meeting taking place in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

. The meeting was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, and cohosted with

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

, in commemoration to the 1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. President Ilham Aliyev made opening speech in a video format. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Nikola Selaković underlined that his county's strategic and essential goal is membership in the European Union, but that Serbia will not give up on its traditional friends which are not only

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

but all member states of the Non-Aligned Movement. While reflecting on historical achievements Indian representative Meenakashi Lekhi invited honest introspection if movement is to keep its relevance and called unnamed member states to avoid insistence on divisive issues and bilateral score-settling which make NAM increasingly ineffective. Participants vocally decried the disparity in vaccine access between developed and developing countries.

Participants

The event took place at the

Belgrade Fair The Belgrade Fair ( sr, Београдски сајам, Beogradski sajam) is a large complex of three large domes and a dozen of smaller halls which is the location of the major trade fairs in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. It is located i ...

with attendees including

President of Ghana The president of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current president of Ghana is Nana Akufo-Addo, who won the 2020 presidential elec ...

Nana Akufo-Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ( ; born 29 March 1944) is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 7 January 2017. In 2020, he was re-elected for his second term, which will end on 6 January 2025. Akufo-Addo previously ...

, Abd al-Hakim (son of Gamal Abdel Nasser), 40 ministers of foreign affairs (including for the first time

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is a high-ranking Russian government official who heads the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. The foreign minister is one of the five so-called 'presidential' minist ...

Sergey Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (russian: Сергей Викторович Лавров, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat and politician who has served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. Lavrov served as the Permanent Represe ...

not as a guest but an observer).

Secretary General of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-ge ...

António Guterres stressed that the event is taking place in the situation of exceptional global challenges. Delegation of

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, one of the founding members and one of only a couple of former European members, was notably absent with Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus avoiding to comment the

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

quest and with media implying it was result of country's poor relations with cohost county of Azerbaijan. Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (; born 5 February 1968) is a Turkish diplomat and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey since 24 November 2015. He previously served in the same position from August 2014 to August 2015. He is ...

was invited as a special guest. Turkish diplomat

Volkan Bozkır Volkan Bozkır (born 22 November 1950, Ankara) is a Turkish diplomat and politician who served as the President of the United Nations General Assembly from 2020 to 2021. He served as Minister for European Union Affairs from November 2015 to May 2 ...

was previously president of

Seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly The Seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly was the session of the United Nations General Assembly which ran from 16 September 2020 to 15 September 2021. The President for the session was Volkan Bozkır, who stated that the se ...

. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Nikola Selaković described the event as the largest diplomatic gathering in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

taking place during the

Covid pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

expecting to bring together 550 attendees from 105 countries and 11 organisations.

Delegates

Members

Aymen Benabderrahmane Aymen Benabderrahmane ( ar, أيمن بن عبد الرحمان; born 30 August 1966) is an Algerian politician who is serving as Prime Minister of Algeria since 30 June 2021. He had served as Minister of Finance from June 2020 until February ...

Tete António Tete António is an Angolan politician who has been the Minister of External Relations since 2020. References Living people Foreign ministers of Angola 21st-century Angolan people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth m ...

Paul Chet Greene E. Paul Chet Greene (born 15 January 1964) is a Member of the Antigua and Barbuda House of Representatives, and a Cabinet Minister. Early life Chet was born and raised in Liberta, He was educated at the Liberta Primary School and the All Sai ...

Jeyhun Bayramov Jeyhun Aziz oglu Bayramov ( az, Ceyhun Əziz oğlu Bayramov) is an Azerbaijani politician who currently has served the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan since 2020. Bayramov previously served as the Minister of Education f ...

AK Abdul Momen Abul Kalam Abdul Momen ( bn, আবুল কালাম আব্দুল মোমেন; born 23 August 1947), popularly known as AK Abdul Momen, is a Bangladeshi economist, diplomat, and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affai ...

*; Alpha Barry *; Ouch Borith *;

Osman Saleh Mohammed Osman Saleh Mohammed was the first Minister of Education for Eritrea following Independence, serving in that position from 1993 to 2007. He has oversaw the transition from the revolutionary EPLF school system to a national education system. In ...

*; Joseph Hamilton *;

Meenakshi Lekhi Meenakshi Lekhi (born 30 April 1967) is an Indian politician and the current Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture of India from 7 July 2021. She is a Member of Parliament from New Delhi Parliamentary constituency in the 16th an ...

Retno Marsudi Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi (born 27 November 1962) is an Indonesian diplomat who has been serving as the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of Joko Widodo since 2014. She is the first female minister appointed to the post. She was ...

*; Mehdi Safari *;

Fuad Hussein Fuad Mohammed Hussein () is an Iraqi Kurdish politician from the Kurdistan Democratic Party who is the current Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was previously the Minister of Finance in the Government of Adil Abdul-Mahdi. Background Hu ...

Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah (; born 13 February 1971) is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait. References {{Kuwait-politician-stub 1971 births Kuwaiti politicians Living people ...

*; Abdallah Bou Habib *;

Omar Hilale Omar Hilale (Tamazight: ⵄⵓⵎⴰⵔ ⵀⵉⵍⴰⵍ; ar, عمر هلال; born 1 January 1951 in Agadir) is a Moroccan career diplomat. He has been Morocco's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York since he was appointed in ...

Narayan Khadka Narayan Khadka is a central member of Nepali Congress who has served as the Foreign minister of Nepal since 2021. He has worked previously as Minister of Urban Development under Sushil Koirala-led government. He is a member of the 2nd Nepalese ...

*; Denis Moncada Colindres *;

Geoffrey Onyeama Geoffrey Jideofor Kwusike Onyeama (born 2 February 1956) is Nigeria's Minister for Foreign Affairs. Onyeama was appointed Foreign Affairs Minister of Nigeria in November 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari. Early life and education Onyeama was ...

Riyad al-Maliki Riyad al-Maliki ( ar, رياض المالكي; born 31 May 1955) is former Minister of Information, government spokesperson, and Foreign Affairs Minister of the Palestinian National Authority in its 12th government, and resumed office as Foreign ...

Mark Brantley Mark Anthony Graham Brantley (born 11 January 1969) is the Premier of Nevis, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and former Minister of Foreign Affairs for St Kitts and Nevis. On May 10, 2022, Dr Timothy Harris, having lost the supp ...

Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah bin Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud (Arabic فيصل بن فرحان آل سعود, DMG Faiṣal b. Farḥān Āl Saʿūd; born 1 November 1974 in Frankfurt am Main) is a Saudi Arabian diplomat and politician and ...

Mariam al-Mahdi Mariam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi ( ar, مريم الصادق المهدي; born 1965) is a Sudanese politician, the leader of the National Umma Party, and the Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs since 11 February 2021. She is the daughter of Sadiq a ...

Faisal Mekdad Faisal Mekdad ( ar, فيصل المقداد; born 1954) is the Syrian Foreign Minister and former Permanent Envoy to the United Nations. Life and education Faisal Mekdad was born in the village of Ghasm in Daraa Governorate in 1954. He graduate ...

Observers

Milorad Dodik Milorad Dodik ( sr-cyrl, Милорад Додик, ; born 12 March 1959) is a Bosnian Serb politician serving as the 8th president of Republika Srpska since November 2022. Previously, he served as the 7th Serb member of the Presidency of Bo ...

*; Zdenko Lucić *;

*; host of the meeting with multiple official representatives involved.

Guests

*; Stanislav Raščan *;

Events and initiatives

The City of Belgrade prolonged the opening hours of various services (restricted due to pandemic) to welcome numerous foreign guests. President of the

Seventy-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly The Seventy-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly was the session of the United Nations General Assembly which ran from 14 September 2021 to 13 September 2022. The President of the UN General Assembly is from Asia-Pacific Group. ...

hosted the sidelines Meeting of Women Heads of Delegations and Ministers of Foreign Affairs at the UN House in Belgrade. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia

highlighted the Indonesian nomination of the Archive of the First NAM Conference to the

Memory of the World Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

program of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of ...

and

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

signed a formal diplomatic relations and visa waiver agreement at the margins of the meeting. During the meeting with

President of Serbia Vučić reiterated that his country will not move its embassy to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

as it was planned in the 2020 Washington Agreement.

Criticism

The event was criticized by

University of Graz The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria. History The unive ...

professor

Florian Bieber Florian Bieber (born 4 October 1973) is a Luxembourgian political scientist, historian and professor working on inter-ethnic relations, ethnic conflict and nationalism, focusing primarily on Balkans. Education In 1991–1992, he studied Hist ...

as an outlived unprincipled autocrats gathering in service of Serbian president policy agenda. The

President of Kosovo The president of the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Presidenti i Republikës së Kosovës, ), is the head of state and chief representative of the de facto Republic of Kosovo in the country and abroad. The president is elected indirectly, by the Assem ...

Vjosa Osmani Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu (born 17 May 1982) is a Kosovar Albanian jurist and politician serving as the 5th and current President of Kosovo since 4 April 2021. Born in former Yugoslavia and raised in the city then known as Titova Mitrovica, today the ...

who said that Belgrade is abusing the Non-Aligned Movement to distort the truth about

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

and called Serbia a

colonizer Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

country. The head of the Serbian Government’s Office for Kosovo Petar Petković answered that Osmani’s criticism are motivated by her anxiety arising from the loss of international support.

Participants

Delegates

Members

Observers

Guests

Events and initiatives

Criticism

Notes and references

Notes

References

See also