Perspectives on XVI NAM Summit

After the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is the most important world body as it represents nearly two-thirds of the UN members and about 55 percent of the world population.  NAM emerged during the 1960s in the context of the bi-polar world; with the United States of America(USA) leading the ‘Free World’ on the one hand, and  the Soviet Union at the head of a coalition of revolutionary communist countries, on the other.

Imbued with the desire of preserving their hard-won freedom from colonial powers and pusue independent foreign policy by not joining the regional military groupings sponsored by the Westrn Bloc headed by the US as well as the Eastern Bloc headed by the erstwhile Soviet Union, leaders of the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa, such as Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea)  Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Emperor  Haile Selassie (Ethiopia)  and Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito argued that developing countries should refrain from aligning their countries with either bloc, but pursue their own independent path in international affairs.

This was in this backdrop that the origin of the Non-Aligned Movement took place, which was inaugurated with the convening of the first NAM Summit held in belgrade (Yugoslavia) in September 1961.  The Non-aligned Movement adopted two ideological pillars to guide the work of the Movement; Political decolonisation of all territories under colonial domination and; Reform of an unjust global economic order which consigned developing countries to the underdog status of ‘hewers of wood and water’, while the advanced industrial countries produced manufactured goods.

Over the decades, the NAM has traversed a long way to prove its relevance and justification. The successful organization of the XVI Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement from 26 to 31 August 2012 in Tehran (Iran) is a testimony to this fact. The NAM Summit meeting in Tehran was held in three phases: preparatory senior officials meeting on 26-27 August, ministerial level meeting on 28-29 August, and the Summit on 30-31 August 2012. Representatives from over 100 countries gathered in the Iranian capital to discuss the new global challenges. Venezuela was selected the host for the 17th NAM Summit in 2015, while two countries, namely Azerbaijan Republic and Fiji, were accepted as the new members of the organization.

As of August 2012, the organisation comprises 120 member states, including the non-UN member state of Palestine, and 21 other observer countries. Iran will hold the NAM presidency for three years until the 17th summit in Venezuela in 2015.

Agenda

The base of the NAM summit’s negotiations’ framework is the “Final Document” adopted during the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau which was held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from 7 to 10 May 2012. The Foreign Ministry Iran said that the agenda would primarily consist of issues pertaining to nuclear disarmament, human rights and regional issues. Iran also intended to draw up a new peace resolution aiming to resolve the Syrian civil war. During the summit, Iran was to draw up a new peace resolution aiming to resolve the Syrian crisis.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi opened the first meeting and spoke of NAM’s original goal: “We believe that the timetable for ultimate removal of nuclear weapons by 2025, which was proposed by NAM, will only be realised if we follow it up decisively.” At the opening of the ministerial meeting Khamenei said: “The UN Security Council has an irrational, unjust and utterly undemocratic structure, and this is an overt dictatorship. The control room of the world (the Security Council) is under the control of the dictatorship of some Western countries.” Al Jazeera interpreted Moon’s reaction as “nonplussed.”
The Senior Officials Meeting was held on 26 and 27 August 2012. The officials reviewed the Sharm El Sheikh’s document and issued a draft document which should be endorsed by the ministerial meetings. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, who was also secretary general of the senior officials meeting, read parts of the draft document at the press conference and mentioned some of the main points including rejection of all forms of terrorism ,as well as all form of occupation including occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel, requesting weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapon disarmament, condemning unilateral sanctions and replacing unipolar management of international politics with collective management. According to Akhundzadeh, the draft urges for a Middle East free from nuclear weapons and emphasizes “inalienable” right of all NAM member states for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, envisaged by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The Ministerial Meeting with presence of foreign ministers of NAM countries was held on 28-29 August 2012. Egypt’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, handed the presidency of the ministerial meeting for three years at the opening ceremony of the meeting. After opening remark of Ali Akbar Salehi and listening to the report of Senior Officials Meeting which was delivered by Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, the ministers starts to review the document.
After preparation of the final document for the leaders summit, Ali Akbar Salehi participated in a press conference and emphasized on the four main topics that were discussed at the meeting including establishment a task force in New York to pursue Palestine’s membership in the United Nations and act against Israel’s “illegal” measures against Palestinians, finding solution for Syrian crisis with United Nations cooperation, acting against monopolizing of the financial mechanisms in the world by using US dollar and finally establishment of a work group in New York to study the mechanisms of plural management of the world .
On 30 August 2012, the summit was inaugurated by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Then Egypt President, Mohammad Morsi, as the chair of the 15th summit declared opening of the 16th summit and presented the report of NAM’s chairmanship during the past three years, then officially handed the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement to Iran President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After Morsi, President of the Sixty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Mon, Chair of the Group of 77 Mourad Benmehidi, host President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered their opening speeches.

In his inaugural address to the summit, Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei condemned the use of nuclear and chemical weapons as an “unforgivable sin”, and called for “Middle East Free from Nuclear Weapons”. While arguing that it was ironic for the US to oppose nuclear proliferation while it possessed the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and had used them in the past, Khamanei also accused the US and its Western allies of providing Israel with nuclear weapons.
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who was described as visibly irritated, decried Iran’s position towards Israel in his opening speech. He said it was “utterly wrong” to describe Israel in “racist terms” or to deny its right to exist. He called on both Iran and Israel to stop making threats against the other. While describing Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as “constructive and useful,” Ban Ki-Moon demanded that Iran boost global confidence in its nuclear program by “fully complying with the relevant (UN) Security Council resolutions and thoroughly cooperating with the IAEA.”
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi denounced the Syrian government, an ally of Iran, calling it “oppressive” and said that it was an “ethical duty” to support the Syrian revolt against the al-Assad government. Walid al-Moallem, Syrian foreign minister, walked out in protest, although Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained seated beside Morsi. Morsi called for a peaceful transition to freedom and democracy in Syria. Like Iran, Morsi also called for reform in the structure of the UN Security Council. At the summit Egypt’s Mohammed Morsi also handed over the leadership of the body to Iran for the next three years.

India at Summit

Addressing the 16th NAM summit in Tehran on 30 August 2012, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while admitting to deficits in global governance, called on the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to “take the lead” in reforming international institutions like the UN, even as it urged member states to tackle problems by “developing solutions that are best suited to our own circumstances”. He also sought immediate steps to reduce tensions in global hotspots like West Asia and North Africa.
According to Manmohan Singh, “the deficit in global governance is perhaps most stark in the sphere of international peace and security and in restoring just and fair economic mechanisms”. “Our movement should take the lead in building global governance structures that are representative, credible and effective,” he said, adding it was his “sincere hope” there can be agreement “on action to reform institutions such as the United Nations Security Council, the World Bank and the IMF”.

He further added that existing problems could not be solved effectively without a greater voice for developing countries on issues such as global trade, finance and investment. Noting in this context that developing countries can be “drivers of global growth”, he said that international financial institutions should be encouraged to fund infrastructure development in the developing world “in innovative ways”. “We should also urge that the current economic crisis should not lead to a dilution of development assistance flows from the developed world,” Manmohan Singh cautioned.
Pointing to the other tasks ahead for NAM members, the prime minister urged them to collaborate “in tackling problems and developing solutions that are best suited to our own circumstances”. “For example, the developing world is rich in renewable sources of energy like solar power. We should use our financial and intellectual resources to develop renewable energy technologies that get less attention in the industrialised world where the resource base is different. Adoption of these technologies will also enable us to contribute to preservation of the environment.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh also focused on the need to invest in the knowledge economy and building human resources so that the youth, when faced with “our unique developmental challenges”, have the creativity and energy to find solutions “that are innovative, frugal and affordable”. “We need to provide them skills and equip them to find productive employment in a rapidly changing and inter-connected global economy,” the prime minister said. India would be happy to contribute to a NAM initiative on skill development, particularly focused on the knowledge economy.
Summit Concludes

The 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit concluded in the Iranian capital of Tehran on 31 August 2012 after the adoption of the outcome documents which lay emphasis on peace. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the rotating chairman of the summit, read part of the final documents at the closing ceremony of the event, and said that the participants unanimously expressed their commitments to the principles and objectives of the NAM.
Participants called for “fundamental changes” in global governance and collective management of the world as the precondition of establishing peace, and all of them expressed the call for avoiding conflicts in the world, Ahmadinejad said. “We agreed to ensure human rights and human dignity to develop love, affection and honesty,” he said, adding that “We can solve the global challenges based on friendship.”
He said that, by approving the final documents of the summit, the member states sent “important political messages” for establishing peace and justice in the world. In the final documents, solidarity with the Palestinians has been emphasized as well. But despite all sides’ efforts, the Tehran meeting failed to please all as some major global issues seem to be remaining as they were.
On 31 August 2012, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who had been in Tehran for the first day of the two-day summit, regretted that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had yet to reach agreement on resolving Iran’s nuclear issue. Through a statement issued in the United Nations by his spokesman Farhan Haq, Ban pressed for a “diplomatic and negotiated solution” to the prolonged problem. Ban’s statement was in response to the latest quarterly report by the IAEA on Iran’s disputed nuclear program, which said Thursday that Tehran is hindering the UN nuclear watchdog’s inspection of its Parchin military complex, a possible site being used for suspected nuclear weapon development.
Conclusion

The XVI NAM Summit held in Iran in the last week of August 2012 presented a mixed bag of reactions of performance by different countries. The Summit hogged international limelight, as one expert has put it, not because it had something significant to say or do in the global arena but primarily because the incoherence of the grouping as a whole was once again put on display for the outside world. The summit was helpful for Iran to show that it was not as isolated as many might believe, in the face of international opprobrium and a multitude of sanctions.
Egypt’s new President Morsi was able to establish his credentials as a leader of ‘non-aliged Egypt’ by calling spade a spade vis-à-vis Syria and showing his disapproval for Iranian actions, though mildly.
However, India’s performance at the NAM summit was disturbing. The U.N. secretary general and the Egyptian president stood up for their convictions, but prime minister of India failed to even articulate a coherent position based on the imperatives of Indian national interest. According to one opinion, “This was not really surprising as increasing Indian domestic political demands have imposed significant costs on the management of India’s external relations.” India has lost the aura and halo it once enjoyed as a leading NAM member by focusing on its national interests as well as the interests of other developing countries.
There is a need for India to reoreint its approach towards NAM which is a veritable forum it to revive its image and leadership role for the developing countries. Its economic clout and technological edge can help it regain its ost position, if handed properly.