9th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement

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Host country Yugoslavia
Date4–7 September 1989
CitiesBelgrade
9th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
  • IX samit Pokreta nesvrstanih zemalja (Serbo-Croatian)
  • IX самит Покрета несврстаних земаља (Serbo-Croatian)
  • IX самит на Движењето на неврзаните (Macedonian)
  • IX vrh gibanja neuvrščenih (Slovene)
Venue of the Summit
Host country Yugoslavia
Date4–7 September 1989
CitiesBelgrade
VenuesSava Centar
ChairJanez Drnovšek
(President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia)
Follows8th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (Harare, Zimbabwe)
Precedes10th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (Jakarta, Indonesia)

The 9th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on 4–7 September 1989 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia was the conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement.[1] Belgrade was the first city to host the summit for the second time, after it hosted the 1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961.[2] Yugoslavia was unanimously selected as the host of the summit at the 1988 Non-Aligned Foreign Ministers Conference in Nicosia, Cyprus.[3][2] While the Federal Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia Budimir Lončar was enthusiastic, the Presidency of Yugoslavia, a collective head of state, were skeptical about the prospect of hosting the event. They ultimately supported it, with Josip Vrhovec fearing that rejection might show the level of the crisis in the country.[4] The relatively weak federal government organising the event hoped that the conference might convince leaders of the strong Yugoslav federal republics to resolve the early Yugoslav crisis in a constructive and peaceful way. It nevertheless escalated into the 1991 Yugoslav Wars[4], with the event therefore sometimes described as the swan song of prominent Yugoslav Cold War diplomacy.[4] The summit took place at the Sava Centar in New Belgrade.[5] Janez Drnovšek held the opening remarks in Slovenian.[5]

At the summit, Yugoslavia succeeded in persuading members states to exclude anti-American and anti-Western positions from the final document, which also avoided harsh criticism of Israel and Zionism. For the first time, it explicitly included human rights and freedom as well as women's rights provisions.[6] Yugoslavia nevertheless welcomed Yasser Arafat as the President of Palestine and not as the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization.[6] Unsatisfied with the host's stance, more radical members of the movement such as Iraq, Iran and Cuba sent lower-ranking officials to lead their delegations in Belgrade.[6] Career diplomat and the last Yugoslav representative the United Nations Darko Šilović was responsible for the organization of the summit.[7][5] Novi Sad Fair, Belgrade Fair and Zagreb Fair all proposed exhibitions related to NAM during the event while the Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute in Zagreb proposed scientific and cultural symposia on the NAM, with numerous other economic and cultural events taking place all around Yugoslavia.[5] Delegates at the conference planted trees at the New Belgrade Park of Friendship.[8]

Member states

Participants were divided into categories of member states, observers and guests.[9]

Following member states participated in the conference:[9]

Observers

Following states, organizations and liberation movements participated in the conference as observers:[9]

Guests

Unusually large number of states attended the conference as guests:[9]

Alongside states following organizations attended as guests:[9] Commonwealth Secretariat, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Committee of the Red Cross, International Conference on the Question of Palestine, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Latin American Economic System, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Preferential Trading Area (PTA), Southern African Development Coordination Conference, United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean, United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights Of the Palestinian People, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Council for Namibia, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, UNICEF, United Nations Research and Training Centre for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, World Association for World Federation, Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to the Colonial Countries and Peoples, World Food Council, World Food Programme and World Health Organization.[9]

Cultural Heritage

References

See also

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