NAM: One for all and all for one Baku as platform for solving global problems

Today Azerbaijan is holding a Summit-Level Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Contact Group on the fight against COVID-19. The meeting will bring together representatives of 66 countries and 14 international organisations. It is important to note that a significant success and recognition of Baku's authority in the international arena as a whole and in the Non-Aligned Movement, in particular, was the election of Azerbaijan as chair of NAM in 2019, that is, just eight years after our country joined the organisation in 2011.

The doctrine of non-alignment itself originated in the late 40s of the XX century and was first declared at the Bandung Conference of Asian and African countries in 1955. It reflected and developed the general democratic tenets of the anti-colonial struggle, the ideas of the sovereignty and independence of peoples, and the principles of political and economic equality.

The Non-Aligned Movement itself was founded in 1961 at a conference in Belgrade at the initiative of three titans of world politics of the twentieth century - Jawaharlal Nehru, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Josip Broz Tito. The main principle uniting all member countries was, as its name suggests, non-participation in military blocs.

For several decades, the NAM played on the contradictions between two blocs (capitalist and socialist) and implemented solutions in favour of developing countries. At the same time, the organisation demonstrated an irreconcilable stance towards the opposing blocs on a number of critical issues. For example, the movement opposed both the US invasion of Vietnam and the introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan.

In the early 1990s, with the end of the Cold War and the establishment of a unipolar world under US hegemony, the Non-Aligned Movement had to work hard to maintain its relevance on the international stage. It has succeeded with varying degrees of success. Now, with the defragmentation of the world into several poles, the Non-Aligned Movement faces new challenges as well as opportunities.

The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is one such challenge. Against the background of the observed paralysis of cardinal solutions in many countries, Azerbaijan, which at that time was chairing the organisation, coped brilliantly with most of the challenges posed by the pandemic. Thus, in 2020, a contact group of the Non-Aligned Movement on COVID-19 was established and a summit was held at the initiative of Azerbaijan. At the forum, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev proposed holding a special session of the UN General Assembly devoted to combating the pandemic. This proposal was supported by the world community and the special session was successfully held in December 2020, which became the largest event in the fight against COVID-19. At the same time, our country as chair of NAM successfully fought against "vaccine nationalism". At Baku's initiative, resolutions on the equitable distribution of vaccines were adopted at both the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council.

The current summit will be a logical continuation of the mentioned meeting, where it is expected to sum up the work done and define directions for the post-pandemic period. At the same time, the summit will also address global issues that are relevant to the world order, including efforts to achieve the UN's sustainable development goals, climate change, and food security. The last point is particularly important in light of the fact that the Russian-Ukrainian war has left some member states of the Non-Aligned Movement facing serious food security risks.

We should also note that one of the topical issues related to the urgent need to increase NAM's influence on world processes is Azerbaijan's initiative to reform the UN Security Council with the inclusion of one of the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement as a permanent member on a rotating basis. This should be an important milestone for showing and promoting the interests of countries outside the elite club of world leaders and will enable the formation of a more equitable global agenda. In this regard, it is important to hold consultations among the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement, and such an approach would be more equitable, the head of the Azerbaijani state noted shortly before the summit.

It should also be noted that the Non-Aligned Movement is increasingly determined to defend the interests of its member states on the global political stage. The most important event that demonstrated this determination, as well as the work of Azerbaijan to consolidate the efforts of the Movement, was the support of the non-permanent members of the UN Security Council in preventing the adoption of the anti-Azerbaijani resolution initiated on October 19, 2020, in the midst of the Second Karabakh War. The same solidarity was shown by NAM member states during the recent voting in the UNSC on the resolution initiated by France against our country.

This year, Azerbaijan is handing over the Chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement to Uganda. However, we can be sure that our republic will continue to be one of the drivers of positive initiatives both within the organisation and in the world on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.