Why will Serbia celebrate the Day of the Non-Aligned on September 1?

Prime Minister Đuro Macut announced that on September 1, when it was founded in Belgrade in 1961 Non-aligned movement, to be celebrated in Serbia as the Day of the Non-Aligned.

According to his reasoning, it can be concluded that in this way Serbia is actually trying to further strengthen the campaign to withdraw the recognition of Kosovo's independence, colloquially known as "de-recognition", and to embrace those countries that did not recognize Kosovo's independence even more closely.

Preserving the status of Kosovo and Metohija

Macut emphasized that the Government of Serbia is committed to "renewing and deepening friendships" with countries that build relations with Serbia on the basis of "honesty, mutual respect and solidarity".

This, he added, particularly applies to countries that "respect the territorial integrity of Serbia and support the struggle to preserve the status of Kosovo and Metohija in accordance with international law."

He also pointed out that the decision to mark the Day of the Non-Aligned Represents "a big step in further strengthening the independent and sovereign politics of Serbia", and that this act not only preserves the memory of Belgrade's historical role in the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement, but also confirms "Serbia's strategic determination to remain consistent with the policy of peace, cooperation and equality among nations".

Tito-Nehru-Nasser

The first conference of the Non-Aligned Movement was held during the first six days of September 1961 in Belgrade, which was then the capital of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.

The conference was attended by 25 countries represented by heads of state and government or ministers of foreign affairs, so Belgrade, among others, hosted the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, the kings of Nepal and Morocco, and the legendary figures of non-alignment politics, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, and Gamal Abdel Nasser, the President of Egypt, who, along with Josip Broz Tito, are considered to be the founders of the Movement.

Three Latin American countries, Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador had observer status.

The official goal of the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement was the exchange of views on international problems in order to contribute more effectively to peace and security in the world and peaceful cooperation among nations.

Since mostly very poor countries took part in the conference, it was also known as "Yalta of the third world".

In the Declaration of the conference, the member countries of the Movement decisively rejected the thesis that war, as well as "cold war", are inevitable. The responsibility for the tightening of international relations was attributed to the then military blocs - the NATO alliance and the Warsaw Pact. The non-aligned countries believed that the principles of peaceful coexistence were the only alternative to the Cold War.

Yugoslavia kept an "equidistance" towards the great powers.

The Non-Aligned Movement has had serious weight in global politics for decades. Without the support of the member states, it was practically impossible to secure a majority in the General Assembly of the United Nations, which was important even for the USA and the USSR in the period after the Second World War. Through the Non-Aligned Movement, Tito strengthened Yugoslavia's foreign policy position even more.

Dropped straw of salvation for SFRY

In 1989, the Ninth Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement was held in Belgrade, also in September, making the capital of the then SFRY the first city to host the summit twice. That conference, in addition to the struggle for non-alignment policy, was supposed to be a straw of salvation for Yugoslavia, because there were clearly naive hopes that the nationalist leaders of the then Yugoslav republics would be able to soften their positions and reach an agreement on the country's internal policy under the auspices of an international event. The summit was held at the Sava Center in New Belgrade, and Janez Drnovšek gave the opening speech in Slovenian.

Ironically, at one point, the peoples of Yugoslavia stopped believing in the peaceful coexistence preached by the Non-Aligned Movement at the international level, so with the collapse of the country in 1992, Yugoslavia disappeared from the Movement.

Instead, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia are observer countries today. Bosnia and Herzegovina's candidacy for full membership was rejected in the nineties, and the only European country that is a full member is Belarus.

Vučić's "Welcome Home"

Belgrade hosted the Non-Aligned for the third time in October 2021, which marked the 60th anniversary of the first conference of the Non-Aligned Movement. That summit, which was attended by more than 100 officials from the member states, was opened by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, with the words "welcome home".

"Belgrade was, is and will be a proud host to every human being who carries peace within himself. The basic idea around which our predecessors gathered when they founded the Movement was peace. Peace is the basis for the development of cooperation, whether it is political or economic," Vučić pointed out at the time.

He also assessed that Serbia is a "proud promoter of the policy of multilateralism and respect for international norms".