A group of Third World countries (i.e., from Asia, Africa, South America), most of whom had recently gained sovereignty from colonial rule, refused to join any Cold War alliances.
This laid the foundation for the Non- Aligned Movement. Which was formally established at the Belgrade Conference (1961) with 25 member nations. Some of the founding members were Marshall Tito (Yugoslavia) Jawaharlal Nehru, (India), Gamal Nasser (Egypt), Nkrumah (Ghana), Sukarno (Indonesia).
The concept of Non-alignment is based on two main principles:
independent understanding of world affairs
peace approach.
Thus it does not mean political passivity or neutrality. In fact, the idea was active participation in world affairs to promote peace and development.
The purposes of NAM were:
not to ally with any power bloc
opposition to any military alliance
freedom to take independent policy decisions with regard to international affairs.
