Beqari, Tahmaz

The conference of non-aligned countries in Belgrade was organized when Indonesia and other countries of Asia and Africa were attempting to organize a Second Bandung Conference. Tito and Nehru, trying to minimize the influence of China in the Asian and African countries, initiated a conference that they called the Conference of Non-Aligned Countries in Belgrade. The document discusses the 24 participating countries, the agenda, the proceedings, the different groups among the delegation and the two main documents that the conference adopted: the manifesto and the declaration. The manifesto, titled “The Danger from the War and the Call for Peace,” according to the Albanian ambassador, was adopted in a revisionist spirit, calling on Khrushchev and Kennedy to maintain peace. Meanwhile, the declaration criticized colonialism and imperialism. The Belgrade conference did not decide on any specific issues and did not reach any important conclusions. In Albania, a week after the conference, the journal “Zeri i Popullit” (Voice of the People) wrote an article in which it identified Tito as an agent of imperialism and stated that Yugoslavia was not an non-aligned country as it participated in the Balkan Pact.

The ambassador reports on the proceedings of the Belgrade conference of non-aligned countries, and about the differences and nuances of the stances of various delegations. Except India, Libya, and the United Arab Republic, all delegations were in favor of China’s participation in the United Nations. In addition, Nehru pointed out that colonialism is in agony while the Ghanaian, Cuban, Iraqi, Nepalese and Ethiopian delegations claimed to the contrary. When Dorticós, the Cuban President, began unmasking American imperialism, the diplomats of Western countries left the conference. The diplomats of friendly countries, according to Beqari, called the speeches of the conference “80% positive.”