Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement Opens
in Havana
The Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) officially opens
on September 11 in Havana, Cuba. More than 100 countries are
expected to send heads of state and other high-ranking government officials to
the summit, which will mark the beginning of Cuba’s three-year term as president
of the organization. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
stated that one of Cuba’s
main goals during its presidency will be to strengthen the cohesion and
solidity of the movement.
The Non-Aligned
Movement emerged during the Cold War in response to the bipolar division of the
world between the United States
and Soviet Union. With the end of the Cold War
it has increasingly emerged as an organization that defends the small and
developing countries against the trampling of their sovereignty by the big
powers, especially by the U.S.
which gives itself the right to intervene anywhere in the world in violation of
international law and the United Nations Charter.
The main topics
of discussion at the summit will be peace and economic development, with
proposals for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, including the nuclear
arsenals of the big powers. A link has also been drawn between the war
preparations of the big powers and the poverty of the developing countries. It
has been suggested that if the hundreds of billions of dollars currently spent
on military equipment were dedicated instead to economic development the
enormous inequalities and poverty in the world could be eliminated. There is
also widespread support amongst the members countries
of NAM for the position of Iran regarding
the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy and the right of every country to
develop its own nuclear energy program, including the uranium enrichment cycle.
The vast majority of NAM
countries reject the blatant double standard that currently exists on this
front, with some countries denied the right to possess technology for the
peaceful use of nuclear power, while others are given the right to possess nuclear
weapons and to threaten to use them to impose their will on others.
With the
increasingly blatant use of the United Nations Security Council as an
instrument of big power politics and as a cover for U.S. aggression and war, the
Non-Aligned Movement has tremendous potential as an organization of the weak
and dispossessed nations in defence of national
sovereignty and against big power bullying. The current summit in Havana is shaping up to
be an important step in this direction.